What does “Medicare for All” really mean, how would it be financed, and are there other ways to achieve universal health care? Watch the panel discussion that addresses these questions and more.
Our panelists explain the basics of a single-payer system, its pros and cons, and other strategies to achieve universal health care.
This talk was part of the 2019 UC Berkeley School of Public Health Dean’s Speaker Series. It was co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Panelists
Laurel Lucia, Director Health Care Program, UC Berkeley Labor Center MPP ’05
Laurel Lucia is director of the Health Care Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, where she has worked since 2009. Her recent research has examined the uninsured in California and state options for achieving universal coverage, health insurance for California immigrants, health care affordability challenges and proposed solutions, and the health coverage and economic impacts of Affordable Care Act repeal on California. Previously, Laurel worked on issues affecting health care workers as a researcher/policy analyst for the Service Employees International Union.
Wendell Potter, author, journalist, and president of Wendell Potter Consulting
Wendell Potter is an author, former corporate public relations executive, and journalist with more than four decades of experience as a communications professional. Wendell has also served as press secretary to a Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, head of advertising and PR for a large integrated health care system in East Tennessee, a partner in an Atlanta public relations firm, and a state and federal lobbyist. He left his corporate career to advocate for meaningful health care reform and has spoken at more than 200 public forums and authored the award-winning book, Deadly Spin, An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. In addition to serving as president of Wendell Potter Consulting, Wendell is also a columnist for The Center for Public Integrity.
Stephen Shortell, Professor of the Graduate School and Dean Emeritus, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Stephen M. Shortell PhD, MPH, MBA is the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and The UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. He co-leads the Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research and the Center for Lean Engagement and Research in Healthcare. From 2002 to 2013 he served as dean of the School of Public Health. A leading health care scholar, he has received numerous awards for his research examining the performance of integrated delivery systems; the organizational factors associated with quality and outcomes of care; and the factors associated with the adoption of evidence-based processes for treating patients with chronic illness.
Micah Weinberg, president, Bay Area Council Economic Institute
Micah Weinberg PhD is president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a think tank focused on the most critical economic and policy issues facing the nine-county Silicon Valley/San Francisco region. In this role, he manages a team of professional researchers who produce world class economic and policy analysis and insight. He serves on the boards or steering committees of the the California Stewardship Network, the homelessness-focused nonprofit Hamilton Families, Rise Together Bay Area, Covered California for Small Business, and the Greater Bay Area Redwood Area of the American Cancer Society.
Moderator
Larry Levitt, Senior Vice President for Health Reform, Kaiser Family Foundation
Larry Levitt MPP is senior vice president for health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation and senior advisor to the president of the foundation. Among other duties, he is co-executive director of the Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance. He previously directed the foundation’s communications and online activities and its Changing Health Care Marketplace Project. Prior to joining the Kaiser Family Foundation, he served as a senior health policy advisor to the White House and Department of Health and Human Services, working on the development of President Clinton’s Health Security Act and other health policy initiatives.