This blog is designed to present basic statistics on access to health care, and to collect individual experiences obtaining care.  It will not be nationally representative, but the hope is to eventually get a large number of personal stories that will be a bit more representative than the current anecdotes used by policymakers that are based on one or two people.   We’ll also blog periodically about supposed facts, or lack of facts, thrown around in discussions of health care access, and try to shed some light on their accuracy.

The primary blog author has worked on issues related to access to  health care for more than 35 years.  She worked at AHRQ, the National  Center for  Health Statistics, and several Congressional Commissions that make recommendations on Medicare and Medicaid policy.  She recently retired and hopes to publish a book on access to health care that includes personal experiences and  not just statistics.  No stories would be included without the contributor’s permission, and no names would be included.