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Public Affairs Discussion Group
"Medical Markets and Health Savings
Accounts"
Febraury 3, 2006
Toepfer Room, Adelbert Hall
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
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J. B. Silvers, Ph.D.
Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft
Professor of Health Systems Management at Case
Western Reserve University
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Dear Colleagues:
President Bush’s proposed answer to America’s healthcare
financing mess is to encourage people to switch from
traditional insurance to Health Savings Accounts. In his
State of the Union Address he argued that HSAs should be
made available to more Americans than they are today.
The idea sounds sensible – who could be against health,
or savings, or choice? But within the health policy
world, it is extremely controversial.
In spite of all the controversy about the Medicare drug
benefit, some health policy experts think the provisions
in the 2003 Medicare legislation that sought to
encourage people to switch to HSAs are far more
important. If widely adopted, what would be the effect
of HSAs? And will they be widely adopted? Changes in the
kind of insurance people have depend in part on law and
in part on market behavior. HMOs spread rapidly only
many years after the federal government, in 1973, began
trying to encourage their spread. That last revolution
in health insurance began with employers and then
employees changing their behavior in the medical
insurance marketplace. Has the next revolution in health
insurance begun?
We are fortunate to have on campus one of the best
people in the country to discuss that question. J.B.
Silvers is the Treuhaft Professor of Health Systems
Management and Faculty Director of the Health Systems
Management Center at the Weatherhead School. In addition
to his publication and teaching, J.B. has been a member
of the Congressional body overseeing Medicare payment
policies and served as CEO of QualChoice, the insurance
plan affiliated with University Hospitals. J.B. has been
studying the adoption of HSAs by employers and
employees, and will lead the discussion on Friday,
February 3 about Medical Markets and Health Savings
Accounts.
As usual, the discussion is open to all, cookies and
beverages are provided courtesy of the Office of
University Communications, and we will meet in the
Toepfer Room of Adelbert Hall from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30
p.m
Joseph White, Ph.D.
Luxenberg Family Professor and Chair
Department of Political Science
Director, Center for Policy Studies
Case Western Reserve University
Mather House 111
11201 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland OH 44106-7109
(216) 368-2426
joseph.white@case.edu
More About Our Guest
J. B. Silvers, Ph.D., the Elizabeth M.
and William C. Treuhaft Professor of Health Systems
Management serves as Faculty Director of the HSMC and
holds a joint appointment in Epidemiology and Biostatics
in the School of Medicine. Prof. Silvers served as a
Commissioner on the Prospective Payment Assessment
Commission (ProPAC the predecessor of MedPAC), as well
as other state and federal commissions. He recently
joined the board of the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Dr. Silvers' research in the areas of
financial management and health services has been
published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of the
American Medical Association, Health Services Research
and many others. Recent work deals with the growth
hormone market and decisions to initiate and end
treatment, merger and acquisition activity and the
impact in health institutions, health insurance, quality
and alternative payment methods, capital needs and
financing in health care. Recent funding has come from
NIH and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Silver's
complete Bio can be found
here.
Spring Semester
Schedule
January 27: Iraq and Vietnam: Some
Questions. Joe White will
try to provoke discussion in
response to Professor George Herring’s talk on January
24, and in anticipation of the programs on January 30,
February 1, and February 2.
February 3: Medical Markets and Health Savings Accounts.
J.B. Silvers, Treuhaft Professor of Health Systems
Management, will discuss the new thing that could have a
big effect on health insurance – and it’s not the
Medicare drug plans.
February 10: The Law and “Animal Rights.” Katherine M.
Hessler, Professor of Law.
February 17: Seeds of Democracy in China? Developments
in Local Government. Forrest Qingshan Tan, Professor of
Political Science, Cleveland State University.
February 24: Discussion of the History of Case Western
Reserve University. Dick Baznik, Director of Case’s
Institute for the Study of the University in Society. In
the Guilford Lounge.
March 3: Turkey: Informal Observations on Education,
Society, Politics, and the Price of Yakut. John
Grabowski, Krieger-Mueller Associate Professor of
Applied History and Director of Research, Western
Reserve Historical Society.
March 10: Bird Flu. Thomas M. Daniel, Professor Emeritus
of Medicine.
March 17: Break Week
March 24: Robots and Emotions. Wyatt Newman, Professor
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
March 31: Sticks, Stones, and Domain Names: The Policy
Stakes in Who Controls Internet Addresses. Jacqueline
Lipton, Associate Professor of Law and Associate
Director, Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.
April 7: The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Disposal
Controversy. Joe H. Payer, Professor of Materials
Science & Engineering and Director, Department of Energy
Corrosion and Materials Performance Cooperative.
April 14: How Environmental Regulations Fragment
Gasoline Markets. Andy Morriss, Galen J. Roush Professor
of Business Law and Regulation.
April 21: Downsizing and Disability. Mark Votruba,
Assistant Professor of Economics.
April 28: Lawn-O-Rama: Coming to Terms With an American
Obsession. Ted Steinberg, Professor of History and
Law.
Parking: For
those people who seek to make special arrangements about
parking, the contact person now will be Fay Alexander.
Her phone number is 368-4440, and her e-mail is
fabrienne.alexander@case.edu.
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