National Dilemmas in Health Care

What are the major political issues facing health care? How do we reduce the existing significant disparities in timely access to health-care delivery? And can we prevent biomedical advances from “breaking the bank?”

Prominent national experts in health and health-care policy will address those and other important issues affecting the future of medicine at the “Health Care Challenges Facing the Nation” conference from 7:30 am – 4:45 pm October 7 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center at Washington University Medical Center. The day before the 2004 presidential debate at the University was carefully selected in an attempt to heighten awareness about health-care policy issues.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, aims to examine the heart of our nation’s health-care system and the policies that govern it. The conference is sponsored by the Washington University Center for Health Policy, the University’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

The Health Care Challenges: Facing the Nation conference will feature the following speakers and participants:

Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., president of Medicare and Medicaid and former FDA Commissioner, has agreed to speak at the event or to participate in an interactive video conference.

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine and former U.S. Surgeon General, will speak on the “Politics of Health Care” from 8:40-9:50 a.m.

Henry J. Aaron, Ph.D., senior fellow of economic studies and the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Chair at the Brookings Institution, will discuss “Financing Health Care with Limited Resources” from 10:10-11:30 a.m.
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Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., senior fellow of Project Hope, will speak on the “Quality of Health Care in the Future” from 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.

James Kimmey, M.D, M.P.H., president and CEO of the Missouri Foundation of Health, will discuss “Spatial and Racial Disparities in Health Care” from 1-2:15 p.m.

David Cutler, Ph.D., professor of economics and academic dean of Arts & Sciences at Harvard University, will speak on the “Impact of Medical R&D Costs” from 2:30-3:45 p.m.

For more information on this conference, please contact Melinda Warren, Director, Weidenbaum Center Forum, at 314/935-5652.