The reports are coming back from your health care meetings, and we couldn't be more impressed. From everything you've said, it looks like your meetings were substantive, full of ideas and expertise, and were a rousing success.

We thought we'd share a small sampling of the ideas that you've submitted to us from your group discussions.

In Nashville, TN, Jane Fleishman and her health care discussion group came away with many diagnoses and solutions for our nation's health care problems. Here's what she reported, in the form of five ideas (out of many submitted - thanks, Jane!):

"Lack of access to good food is a major problem impacting people's health. The system doesn't do a good job of focusing on health. There is a lack of emphasis on diet, exercise and other preventive methods. The system does not seem to have prevention and health as a goal. It seems to be about something else entirely."

"Obesity is epidemic, especially in the South. People who keep their weight down and do things like get regular exercise should be able to get lower insurance premiums or some other incentive for doing the right thing in taking care of themselves."

"Remove the stigma and lack of equity for mental health care. Also, seeking mental health treatment should not make a person uninsurable. Currently, it is very likely that a person will be denied insurance if they have used mental health services, even for problems that are situational (i.e., dealing with grief). "

"Incentives for health care practitioners should be improved (i.e., they get paid when they keep people well as opposed to when their patients get sick)."

"Institute home visiting programs for pregnant women so babies and families get off to a healthy start and we lower our shameful infant mortality rate. In particular, we need to deal with the racial disparity evident in infant mortality rates in the U.S.."

Out of the great state of Washington, this comes from our friend "Astarab":

"It's my observation from 35 years experience in nursing and preventative care that innovative complementary care both in nursing and medicine can save a lot of lives and money. Nurse practitioners is a profession that should be encouraged to grow as it gives excellent first line of care with more emphasis on education, counseling, and practical low cost methods of care."

And from Missouri come a few more ideas:

• Tuition assistance / grants to train healthcare staff (RN, LPN, CNA, Social Workers, etc.) and the education and salaries of the faculty of the training facilities that provide it. Pay for it through a combination of national, state, local and facility/hospital funding.
• Nationally compatible, user friendly, medical record keeping and charting software to allow for efficient and dependable medical record keeping.
• Increases in staffing of support personnel to aid nursing staff in the care of patients
• Encourage development of patient room design and equipment placement that emphasize hygiene, efficiency and ergonomics in the care of hospitalized patients.

If you've recently held your meeting and have yet to report back to us, please do so here: http://www.seiu.org/host.