Health care - the issue of the day! Actually, it has been and continues to be the issue, for far more than a day. As a matter of fact, we may be at a historic watershed, when we'll either begin to fix our health care system or finally fail to bring it under control.
But I'm not writing to pontificate on the health care propaganda wars. I'm writing to inform you of a new development in another contentious industry, journalism. Our cover story this week, "Unable to Resolve Your Complaint," Bill Lueders' report on the activity, or lack thereof, on the part of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, is our first contribution to a cooperative journalism endeavor labeled All Together Now.
Isthmus is one of more than two dozen local news organs that have agreed to work together on an investigative topic. ATN grew out of a meeting in January of this year between Lueders and Brennan Nardi, editor of Madison Magazine. It is, in part, a response to the decimation of the news professionals during this time of economic contraction. Lueders and Nardi were able to assemble a considerable group who felt similarly. For more insight into the group's genesis, read Lueders' post here.
The journalists of ATN chose "Madison RX: Our Ailing Health Care System" as the first collaborative project. There was some fear that events surrounding the ensuing health care debate might render the project irrelevant, but as we've followed that circus we've come to understand that there's little chance of that.
If you want to know more about this effort, visit ATNMadison.org. If you want to check out the various reports that the project will generate from Oct. 18 to 30, you'll be able to find them at the site as they become available.
We have a second report on the ATN topic in this issue, Dave Medaris' "Walk Right In," about walk-in health clinics, a new phenomenon. Also, Maggie Ginsberg-Schutz will write a story for the project next week.
