Call us optimistic cheerleaders if you must, but our mission is to preach hope and dispel fears about the possibility of national health care reform. We took this message to hundreds of health care journalists at their recent conference—Health Journalism 2008—knowing that our friends in the media are sharp about spotting the problems but focus less on reporting the solutions.

While we are optimistic about the chances of health reform, we are not stupid—we are preparing for the battles that will inevitably come. Our preparation, however, includes facilitating a conversation among divergent interests in the health care community—and pointing out just how many things we can agree upon.

Some of the areas of agreement (as well as the battleground) were apparent in our health care reform discussion with Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund, David Himmelstein, M.D., associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Tom Miller, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute, on Friday, March 28. Indeed, there was common ground on several core issues:

• Americans pay more and get less care
• More preventative care and a renewed focus on delivering quality health care will help reduce costs
• We need national health reform
• Consumers, industry stakeholders and policymakers are focused on solutions earlier in the debate than they were in 1993.

In fact, when the panel's moderator, Julie Appleby of USA Today, asked us to name the single biggest impediment to reform, I responded: "Getting everyone to the table to talk—and talk fast." The fact is that there is much to discuss and agree upon—and the sooner we can identify the areas of consensus, the sooner we can focus on how to resolve the points of contention. In the meantime, let's all think positive—rah, rah, Go Team!