The Front Porch: Consumer Driven Health Care Special

All this week, New Hampshire Public Radio has brought you stories and conversations about Consumer Driven Health Care -- an approach to insurance that aims to cut costs by putting more decision making in the hands of patients.

The Front Porch brings you a special 1-hour episode to wrap up the series. We'll find out how a move towards consumer driven care could affect the doctor patient relationship and how the advertising industry has changed the face of medicine over the years.

Our Guests Are:

Jon Greenberg, executive editor at NHPR. He'll explain the basics of Consumer Driven Health Care and how people around New Hampshire feel about it right now.

Nancy Toms, history professor at the State University of New York at Stonybrook. She specializes in the history of medicine, and in 2002 she oversaw a Duke University Medicine and Madison Avenue project that examines the relationships between modern medicine and modern advertising.

Dr. Maurice Ramirez, a Florida physician who works in three Orlando emergency rooms and also sees patients as a General Practitioner. He'll explain how the information age is changing the doctor-patient relationship and how Consumer Driven Health Care could affect it more.

And we'll hear a report from NHPR producer Kerry Grens that looks at what options are out there for New Hampshire patients who are looking to become more informed about their health options.