Your Voice, New Vision is a national initiative to listen to people’s views on health care as it is today and their vision for how it could be better and to make those perspectives an integral part of the health care reform debate.

Launched in 2007, this initiative includes a coast-to-coast listening tour to gather input from people, national opinion research, focus groups and this Web site. Sponsors include the American Hospital Association and Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center.

Your Voice, New Vision will share the stories and viewpoints gathered from the tour at the Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform in March 2008. At this gathering, policymakers, insurers, patients, providers, businesses and others will meet to develop an action plan for health care reform in America.

The voice of the patient — gathered through Your Voice, New Vision — also will be shared with those involved in health care reform in presentations, meetings and other ways to help find better ways to provide quality health care for all Americans.

More than two years ago, the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center began working in earnest to bring together leaders in health care, business and government to build a plan for better health care in America.

One result is a platform of 18 action principles for reform in four areas: insurance, coordinated care, value and payment reform. These principles are the starting point for an action plan for reform, to be developed at the Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform in March 2008.

To move effective reform forward, the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center wanted to know what patients thought about this framework for reform and to hear other ideas. Hence, the creation of Your Voice, New Vision.