I am blogging this from New York City just a day before ChangeNow4Health (CN4H) is slated to formally launch to the general public.

This is a very big news. For the first time ever, a major health insurer has shown willingness, vision and courage to tap into the People Power to catalyze healthcare reform movement. We are on the verge of new and exciting things.

If you are able to make time Monday morning, I encourage you to tune into live webcast by Humana's CEO Mike McCallister. The call starts at 10am Eastern Time on November 19 and you can register here.

Let me offer a few highlights on the history and significance of CN4H:

First of all, a disclosure of my role. A few months ago I was approached by representatives of Humana to help them get this project off the ground. I have a (very) limited consulting role, which includes moderating a community on Preventing Sickness and Maintaining Health, a subject I am very passionate about. I have been quietly blogging on CN4H site on this topic.

What is the basic idea of ChangeNow4Health in laymans' terms?

Simply put there are way too many politicians (of all stripes and partisan affiliations) trying to score points by exploiting people's worries about healthcare access, affordability and choice. Plenty of lobby groups are willing to play along to get their piece of the pie in Washington DC. I have yet to find any politician or lobbyist who does not claim to have citizens' best interests at heart.

Yet, who is asking REAL people what can be done NOW to fix healthcare?

Asking regular people is hard and often scary. What if they suggest something that was not pre-approved by a throng of consultants? What about giving up "control" of the debate? What if they tell us something we do not want to hear? Yet leaders who hide in a bunker are not merely out of touch. In the age of bunker-busting social media they risk to find themselves out of a job.

As I have written before, People Power has forever changed the politics and healthcare is next. Traditional interests must either embrace and lead the charge of face increased pressure and harm to their reputation. Any political group that claims to represent patients and consumers must pause for a second and ask if they have earned the right to speak on their behalf.

Mike McCallister, the CEO of Humana understands this dynamics

That is why ChangeNow4Health was conceived to engage creative energies of the masses to identify solutions to the problem of healthcare affordability, quality and access. Solutions that already exist in communities around the nation and can be implemented today without having to turn the entire system upside down.

To be fair, this is not the first instance of engaging general public in big reform projects. Service Employee Internation Union (SEIU) has sponsored a Since Sliced Bread (SSB) online campaign inviting anyone to submit ideas to shape union's political agenda. The big difference is that while SSB has been focused on finding ideas that SEIU can bring to DC, the idea of CN4H community is to find solutions that can be implemented without reliance on politicians.

Michael Moore may have finally met his match

A little while back I wrote what is wrong with his vision of healthcare reform, why it will most likely fail and what will happen instead. ChangeNow4Health is an opening salvo in the real dialog about how the healthcare system will be transformed. Make no mistake about this - politicians in DC and statehouses will take notice. But efforts like CN4H will force them to keep it real and pay attention to the real world. Humana stepped up and took a lead. Now let's see who follows.

Tomorrow, I will be interviewing Mike McCallister and will post it soon.

UPDATE: The interview is posted here.