We weren't feeling well enough yesterday to pay attention to the webcasts of the 2008 Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform that concluded today at the Lansdowne Resort in in Virginia. Tom Brokaw was the keynote speaker.
At the Post Bulletin, Ed Felker wrote up the event in Mayo symposium hopes to influence health care system:
The Mayo Clinic's Health Policy Center brought together big business, major health care providers, insurers and patient groups on Monday to craft a plan it hopes will influence health care reform following the November elections.
Mayo's National Symposium on Health Care Reform marks a follow-up to its first national symposium in 2006. The two-day conference in suburban Washington is intended to generate a consensus among the health community about how to achieve patient-centered reforms, said Chris Gade, a spokesman for Mayo. . .
. . .The participants at the symposium included some of the biggest names in health care today:. AARP, the American Medical Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Consumers Union, Exxon Mobil, Verizon Communications and Wal-Mart, among others. . .
. . .The attendees were also to hear from representatives of the presidential campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill.
The PB article says that Mayo will distribute the result of the symposium widely. Indeend, we've just discovered that summaries and (best yet) webcasts of the sessions are available online here.
The summary of candidates policy session:
Cokie Roberts of ABC News and National Public Radio led a stimulating discussion of health reform platforms involving representatives from the campaigns of the three remaining major-party candidates for President. Those representatives were:
- Katherine Hayes, J.D., from Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Ph.D., from Sen. John McCain's campaign
- Kavita Patel, M.D., from Sen. Barack Obama's campaign
Hayes said she believes Sen. Clinton's proposal is consistent with the Mayo Clinic principles, and that her goal is quality, affordable coverage for everyone. Dr. Holz-Eakin said what is different about reform this time is that health care is the number one issue among voters. Every candidate has had health reform as part of the platform. Dr. Patel said the Obama plan requires transparency of results. . . .
Real health care policy wonks can view the webcast of the candidate representatives session here (uses Windows Media Player).
We first blogged about the work of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center last August, when we attended a Rural Health Summit where Carleton Rider, Senior Administrator, discussed its Health Care Policy Reform Recommendations. We don't agree with all of those recommendations, but the MCHPC is a rich source of information about the future of health care policy.
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