Your Health, Your Voice, Your Vote: Five Commitments Worth Asking About

Vote Your Health · Thursday, October 29

Your Health, Your Voice, Your Vote

Five commitments worth asking about, and who could help make them happen.

Thursday, October 29. Five days before Election Day.

Yesterday, I shared seven questions to help you weigh what candidates are saying about health care. Today, five commitments I would like to see—from elected officials and from the companies and professional organizations that shape our care.

For me, they begin with the human principal—the person whose body and life are at stake. What would help that person understand their choices and have more say in their care?

1. A first opinion people can reach

OpenEvidence describes its service as available only to health care professionals.[1] I would like AI companies and rulemakers to make personalized guidance available directly to the public, without requiring a professional credential or a subscription.

A useful commitment would include a way to fund access, a public voice in the rules, and published evidence from people using the tool. Does it help them understand their situation and take an appropriate next step? Where does it fall short?

I am building a health guide myself, so I have a stake in getting this right. I will publish its evaluation results, including what does not work.

2. The means to use it

A phone exchange misses someone who has no phone to trade in. Phone makers, carriers and community partners could offer a usable device, affordable service and help getting started.

That help would need to work for someone who has difficulty seeing, typing or understanding technical language. A concrete commitment would say who can get help, where it is available and how many people the program will reach.

3. A bill people can understand

Federal billing standards name procedure codes maintained by the American Medical Association.[2] Being able to look up what a charge means is a reasonable place to begin.

I would like the AMA and other billing standards organizations to make the codes and descriptions freely accessible and usable, with public stewardship to keep them current. That would give people a better starting point for understanding a bill or questioning an error.

4. Relief from medical debt

North Carolina reported cancelling more than $6.5 billion in medical debt by linking relief to enhanced Medicaid payments to hospitals, with federal approval.[3]

That gives governors and hospitals an example to consider. A proposal for your state would identify whose debt qualifies, how relief would be funded, which approvals are needed and when it could begin.

People would need a simple way to receive that relief. A lasting effort would also address what keeps generating unaffordable bills.

5. Results we can see

Census state coverage estimates already exist.[4] An elected official could commit to publishing those figures alongside an improvement target and regular reports on progress.

Health systems and my own profession could make a similar commitment to measuring serious harm from diagnostic errors. Where a credible measure is missing, the first step is a plan to develop and fund it, with someone responsible and a date for reporting.

The same questions apply to AI: how well is it working for the people using it, and what are we learning from its failures?

Before you vote

Which of these would make the greatest difference in your life? If one matters to you, your state’s page at robinblackstone.com/yourstate can help you find the person with the authority to act.

A conversation can begin with what they would do and when. Keeping the answer gives you something to return to after Election Day.

The questions and state pages are at robinblackstone.com/voteyourhealth. If they would be useful to someone you know, you are welcome to pass them along.

Your health. Your voice. Your vote.

Where I stand

I do not belong to a political party. I founded Blackstone Health and the H4 Alliance and am developing Doctor AI. I also write books on these issues. The policies I advocate could affect those projects. No one is paying me to write this article.

#VoteYourHealth #FirstOpinion

Sources. [1] OpenEvidence Inc., App Store listing: describes the service as available only to health care professionals and requiring professional identification. [2] 45 CFR §162.1002(a)(5): identifies CPT-4, maintained and distributed by the American Medical Association, as the standard code set for physician services. [3] Office of Governor Josh Stein and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, press release, October 13, 2025: more than $6.5 billion in debt relief and federal approval of debt-relief conditions attached to enhanced Medicaid payments. [4] U.S. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage by State: 2023 and 2024 (ACSBR-024), based on the American Community Survey.

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