A free public forum examining cost efficiency and
accountability in Minnesota’s health care delivery system will be held from 7
to 9 p.m. Monday, May 21 at Central Lakes College, Brainerd. It will be hosted
by the Gordon Rosenmeier Center for State and Local Government at CLC. The forum will focus on three questions: As
premiums keep rising, can health care delivery ever become affordable again for
most consumers, should there be better accountability for how premium dollars
are spent, and can financing health care be less complicated?
·
Dane
Smith (shown) is a 30-year journalist with the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune. He is
president of Growth and Justice, a progressive think
tank committed to making Minnesota's economy simultaneously more prosperous and
fair.
·
David
Feinwachs is a former chief counsel for the Minnesota Hospital Association.
·
Dr. Chuck Sawyer, with the Minnesota Physicians for a National
Health Program, is a member of the Health Care For All Minnesota board and
senior vice president of Northwestern Health Sciences University.
·
Phil Griffin (shown), a lobbyist for Preferred One, is with the Minnesota
Council of Health Plans, a nonprofit trade association which advocates for Minnesota’s
current HMO-dominated system.
Each
panelist will present for 15 minutes.
Smith will present the Lewin Group study
on cost savings of a unified, one-payer health care delivery system in Colorado
and Minnesota. The study shows
significant savings are possible for Minnesota under a unified health care
system compared to the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) that sets up a state
health insurance exchange for comparative shopping of private plans.
Feinwachs will review his testimony given to legislators
and Congress urging accountability for HMO contractors administering state health
programs. Unlike other state contractors, these contractors have never been
audited.
Sawyer will review
the Minnesota Health Plan for creating a one-payer unified system.
Griffin will present the views of the Council of Health
Plans on efficiency and accountability in the current multi-payer system.
The
audience will be invited to write advance questions, which will be sorted by the
moderator for duplicates and topic relevancy. Moderator is Bob Nelson of the
Veterans Administration.
Sponsors
are the Gordon Rosenmeier Center for State and Local Government at CLC, Health
Care for All Minnesota, and Minnesota COACT.
Contact any of the following for information:
Minnesota Council of
Health Plans: www.mnhealthplans.org or 651-645-0099; Health Care For All
Minnesota: www.hcamn.org or 651-560-0750; Minnesota COACT: www.coact.org, 651-646-0900;
Growth and Justice, www.growthandjustice.org or 651-917-6037.
