To be a leading democracy in the information age means producing objective, independent, scientifically grounded, and widely shared quality information on where we are and where we are going, on both an absolute and relative basis, including comparisons to other nations.

David Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation / Former Comptroller General of the United States

The State of the USA's CEO on Health, Mission

By Chris Hoenig
President and CEO of The State of the USA

Imagine a world where instead of taking stock of our country merely once every year during the State of the Union address, that Americans have all the data they need, on the Web, to assess the State of the USA 365/24/7. Imagine a world where one generation can truly know whether previous ones have left the country better off or not.

I'm Christopher Hoenig, President and CEO of a new non-profit institution, The State of the USA.  Our mission is to help Americans get easy access to facts they can trust on the issues that matter most: from the economy and education, health and the environment, to families, children and public safety.

The State of the USA's CEO
on Health, Mission

Our focus is on key measures — getting the fewest, best numbers and quality data, in one Web site, that our society needs to tell where we are really making progress, where we are falling behind, where we have stalled or even where we just don't know enough.  We desperately need a shared frame of reference to support a new level of civic debate.

Our funders are a coalition of major national foundations, and we are committed to an independent, non-partisan approach.  We do not collect data, interpret it or use it to set goals.  We simply want to make more good data more widely useful to the American people.

Our ambitious challenge will take awhile to accomplish.  But any great journey starts with small, important steps.  I'd like to tell you about one now – how we can tell if the United States is getting healthier than other nations for less money, or the opposite. 

The Institute of Medicine at the National Academies has released an independent report that we commissioned in the public interest.  Simply put, this landmark report defines how to measure the success of our country on the issue of health and health care.  The report is available on our initial Web site at www.stateoftheusa.org.

When the complex topic of health reform is at the top of the national agenda, it is remarkable to have a distinguished panel choose 20 key measures that they believe, to quote the report, "reflect the overall health of the nation and the effectiveness of U.S. health systems."   

This study is a vital touchstone as the nation readies itself to tackle health reform.  In commissioning it, we asked leaders in their field to focus on "credible simplicity" to help Americans truly understand how we are doing, instead of the "incredible complexity" that all too often hamstrings our attempts to solve important national problems.

By funding it for release during the Presidential transition, far ahead of the launch capability of our future site, we are making a statement of principle: This information should be available when it is most useful, not when it is most expedient for any one organization. The more organizations that challenge themselves to present this data to the American people, the better.

Measures on health are only the beginning.  Over the coming years, we plan to develop measures in approximately 15 issue areas – illustrating the many geographic, demographic and topic interrelationships.  In addition to those already mentioned, we will include transportation and infrastructure, energy and aging, national security and population.

With the State of the USA, we can express the values of trust, accountability and the ideal of progress in one bold stroke. With a tool like this at the American people's fingertips, we can also send a message to the world and bring new meaning to Abraham Lincoln's timeless words, "If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we would better judge what to do, and how to do it."

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