This paper presents a number of issues surrounding the setting of agendas for health care reform. We argue the need for increased community involvement, as well as the necessity to wrest health-care decision-making from health care professionals, or at least to ensure that such decision-making is informed by community values. We attempt to answer a few questions: who sets the health reform agenda and who should set it, how is the agenda set and why is this critical, when and where is the agenda set, and how should the agenda be set in the future?