Speaker: Alan C. Monheit, Ph.D.

The debate over health care reform during the recent presidential campaign, and the consensus over the imperative for reform among diverse interest groups such business and labor, liberal and conservative policy advocates, and state and federal government officials, have raised expectations that substantive reform of our health care system is imminent. At the same time, there are sharp differences of opinion as to whether reform should be universal or incremental in its approach, how reform should be implemented and the types of provisions it should contain, and whether we will have the resources to devote to reform in light of our current economic crisis and other pressing social needs. Given these expectations and concerns, what are the realistic prospects for reform and what is reform likely to encompass? This seminar will review the current tensions within the US health care system that have led to calls for reform, the recent efforts to implement reform at the state and federal levels, the types of approaches to reform that have been proposed, and conclude with a discussion of the reform initiative likely to be proposed by the Obama Administration.