Health care is a major issue in the current presidential campaign. Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have laid out very different visions, and each believes his plan is best for our nation's citizenry.
Come learn about each plan from the top policy advisors of each candidate, and take the opportunity to ask your own questions and get answers- The Commonwealth Club of California
Bio
E. Richard Brown
Dr. E. Richard Brown is a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health and the founder and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. He received his PhD in sociology of education from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Brown has studied and written extensively about a broad range of issues and policies that affect the access of disadvantaged populations to health care. His recent research focuses on health insurance coverage, the lack of coverage, and the effects of public policies, managed care, and market conditions on access to health services, particularly for disadvantaged populations, ethnic minorities, and immigrants. Dr. Brown and the Center's studies of health insurance coverage, uninsurance, and eligibility for public programs have been used by California's governors, legislators, and advocates in crafting health insurance legislation and programs.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which he founded in 1994, has developed into a leading national health policy research center and the premier source of health-related information and analysis on California's population (www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu). The Center conducts research on a wide range of health issues and provides extensive public service to policy makers, advocates and the media. The Center is supported by grants and contracts that total more than $8 million a year.
Dr. Brown is the principal investigator for the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), one of the nation's largest ongoing health surveys. CHIS uniquely provides statewide and local-level estimates for California's diverse population and covers a broad range of health issues, including health status and chronic conditions, health behaviors, and health insurance coverage and access to health care.
Dr. Brown also has been extensively involved in the analysis and development of public policies, with particular emphasis on health care reform. He served as a full-time senior consultant to the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform, for which he co-chaired the work group on coverage for low-income families and individuals. He has served as health policy adviser to two members of the United States Senate, where he was a Senate Fellow and developed major health care reform legislative proposals. He was health policy adviser to several candidates for President. Dr. Brown also has developed legislation for the California Legislature and advised members on a variety of health policy legislative issues. He has presented invited testimony to numerous committees in both houses of the U.S. Congress and in the California Legislature and has provided consultation to many private, state, federal, and international agencies. He also has served on several National Academy of Science study committees. He is a past president of the American Public Health Association.
Daniel P. Kessler
Daniel Kessler is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. In addition to his Hoover appointment, he is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on economics, public policy, and the health care industry.
Among his recent publications are, with Mark McClellan, ">The Effect of Hospital Ownership on Medical Productivity," forthcoming in the RAND Journal of Economics, and "Designing Hospital Antitrust Policy to Promote Social Welfare," which appeared in Frontiers in Health Policy Research.
He is the holder of a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Doug Sovern
Doug Sovern began his career as a copy boy at the New York Times, and then moved to California to play in a rock band. After hundreds of gigs and one indie album failed to make him a rock star, Doug returned to journalism, working for Associated Press Radio and San Francisco station K-101.
He worked briefly at KGO before joining KCBS in 1990. Sovern has won more than 125 broadcast journalism awards, including national honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, the RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow awards, and the National Headliner Awards. He was the first three-time winner of the AP's Reporter of the Year Award for California/Nevada, honored in 1999, 2003 and 2004.
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