On November 16, 2006, Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a key architect of the Massachusetts health reform plan, discussed the challenges to universal health insurance at the Seventeenth Annual Symposium on Health Care Services: Research and Practice, sponsored by the GNYHA Foundation and the United Hospital Fund (UHF). Addressing 200 health services researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, Dr. Gruber discussed how states might reduce their numbers of uninsured residents by following the Massachusetts model.
Dr. Gruber cited three challenges to achieving universal coverage: pooling risk, making insurance affordable, and mandating that all individuals are covered. He also spoke about some of the toughest challenges for Massachusetts in implementing its plan-designing an affordable health insurance package, determining what qualifies as minimal creditable coverage, and having all components of the health reform plan in place by July 2007.
"This is a three-year experiment," Dr. Gruber said. "At the end of three years, the Federal money runs out and we figure out whether we've succeeded or failed."
GNYHA President Kenneth E. Raske began the day by talking about the historical impact that the report of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century will have on New York's health delivery system. UHF President James Tallon, Jr. spoke about the new Administration in NYS and what it might mean for health care. Other participants discussed initiatives in patient safety, health savings accounts, physician workforce issues, quality measures, and propensity scoring in health services research.
Read a copy of the Symposium brochure with the full agenda for the day. 
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