Center for Advanced Study - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign : events : Who Gets What?

cas: initiative 2003-2004

Who Gets What? The Interactions of Health Policy and Social Welfare Policy

This year-long initiative will explore the interconnectedness of health and social welfare policies. The goal is to promote and sustain a meaningful discussion about the policies and practices in these intersecting arenas. Besides a faculty and graduate student seminar, the initiative will also include a series of distinguished speakers. These visiting scholars will each give a public lecture in addition to participating in the seminar and offering smaller, more specialized talks as well. This investigation into the interface of health and social welfare policies will be of vital importance not only to our cross-campus community, but to the community at large as well.

CAS Resident Associates Brad Schwartz (College of Medicine) and Noreen Sugrue (Nursing Institute) coordinate this Initiative.

The series of free, public lectures will be held in conjunction with this CAS Initiative include:

The CAS Resident Associates have appointed the following Steering Committee. Committee members help shape and organize the scope of the initiative, identify core faculty participants and are responsible for leading one or more of the seminar meetings:

Leon Dash, Journalism
Larry DeBrock, Economics
Tanya Gallagher, College of Applied Life Studies & The Disability Research Institute
Jack Knott, IGPA
Wynn Korr, School of Social Work
Paul McNamara, Agriculture & Consumer Economics
Michael Moore, Law & Philosophy
Nancy Pogue, The Nursing Institute
Elizabeth Powers, IGPA & Economics
Robert F. Rich, College of Law & IGPA
Susan Schoppelrey, School of Social Work

This initiative is supported by:
Beckman Institute, Center for Advanced Study, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, College of Applied Life Sciences, College of Law, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Medicine, College of Nursing, Nursing Institute, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, Institute of Government and Public Affairs, NCSA, Program in Health Law and Policy, College of Law, School of Social Work, Carle Clinic, Carle Foundation Hospital, and Provena Covenant Medical Center.

	Making Health Policy in an Election Year September 23, 2003 Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. Auditorium, Third Floor, Levis Faculty 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Robin Toner New York Times, Washington Bureau
Robin Toner is a senior writer in the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, covering domestic policy and national politics. Her presentation will address a series of questions of particular importance as we approach a new election year. What happens when ideology, partisanship, and raw campaign considerations intersect on health policy. What were the lessons of the 1992 campaign, and how did it help produce the failed Clinton initiative of 1994 as well as the ripple effects in the years that followed. How is the health issue currently bubbling in the 2004 election. How will the approach of the 2004 election affect the ongoing efforts to produce a Medicare overhaul that provides prescription drug benefits to the elderly. And finally, what is the role of the media throughout? Robin Toner was on WILL-AM radio's call-in program, FOCUS-580.Listen to the archived interview here.

	Financing and Purchasing Health Services - A Book with Seven Seals October 7, 2003 Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. Auditorium, Third Floor, Levis Faculty 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Klaus-Dirk Henke Technical University of Berlin
This lecture will focus on a) a global perspective on financing of the health care system, (b) background on what the goals are for integrated structures und (c) implications for different forms of budgeting. Klaus-Dirk Henke was on WILL-AM radio's call-in program, FOCUS-580.Listen to the archived interview here.

	Just What the Nation Needed: The Welfare Reform Law of 1996 January 27, 2004 Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. Auditorium, Third Floor, Levis Faculty 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ron Haskins Senior Fellow, Economics Studies Program, The Brookings Institution Senior Consultant, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore Former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush for Welfare Policy at the White House
In 1996, Congress enacted sweeping changes in welfare policy. Among other reforms, the cash welfare program that guaranteed benefits to qualified families was replaced by a program that required work and imposed a five-year time limit on receiving benefits. Haskins will review the effect of the reforms on work, child care, family income, and poverty. The major conclusion is that welfare reform has achieved the goal of reducing welfare dependency and improving family financial well-being.

	Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America's Healthcare System April 14, 2004 Wednesday, 3:00 p.m. Music Room, Second Floor, Levis Faculty 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign David Cutler Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of Economoics and Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Member of the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration, and former advisor to presidential candidate Bill Bradley

David Cutler argues that health care has in fact improved exponentially over the last fifty years, and that the successes of our system suggest ways in which we might improve care, make the system easier to deal with, and extend coverage to all Americans. Cutler applies an economic analysis to show that our spending on medicine is well worth it - and that we could do even better by spending more. Further, millions of people with easily manageable diseases, from hypertension to depression to diabetes, receive either too much or too little care because of innefficiences in the way we reimburse care, resulting in poor health and in some cases premature death.

Future presentations will be announced as plans are finalized.