Salzburg Global Seminar Vice-President of Program Operations John Lotherington interviews Jennifer Dixon, Director of the Nuffield Trust in kicking off the first in a series of conferences focusing on healthcare issues.
This 474th Salzburg Global Seminar session entitled, "Reforming Health Care: Maintaining Social Solidarity and Quality in the Face of Economic, Health and Social Challenges," brought together 55 participants, from 28 countries, including physicians, administrators, journalists, law professionals, and others.
They met in the historic Schloss Leopoldskron, in Salzburg, Austria, and discussed a wide range of topics related to reforming healthcare. The second in the series was held in December, focusing on the patients' role and shared decision making; and the third conference will be held in September 2011, on innovation in health and healthcare.
Topics addressed in this video include:
* The levers needed to bring about the reform of healthcare systems.
* The effects that outside pressures - regulation, financial incentives, and local accountability - play in the supply side of healthcare systems.
* Reform brought about through commissioners and providers of healthcare striking the best deals.
* The reforms generated by the demands of individuals – mainly now clinicians, but increasingly also patients.
* The role of ideology in healthcare reform.
* Will the current fiscal crisis accelerate healthcare reform, or retard it?
* The long term challenges to healthcare reform, including demographic changes.
Bio
Jennifer Dixon
Jennifer Dixon is the director of The Nuffield Trust, London. She has researched and written widely on health care reform in the UK and
internationally. Dr. Dixon trained originally in medicine, practicing mainly pediatric medicine, before beginning a career in policy analysis. Until January 2008, she was director of policy at the King's Fund, London. She was a Harkness Fellow in New York in 1990 studying the obstacles to comprehensive health reform in the United
States, and was the policy advisor to the chief executive of the National Health Service between 1998 and 2000.
She is currently a board member of the Audit Commission, and until recently on the board of the Healthcare Commission. She is visiting professor at both LSE and at Imperial College London. In 2009, Dr. Dixon was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. She has a masters in public health and a Ph.D. in health services research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
John Lotherington
John Lotherington is the Salzburg Global Seminar's Vice-President for Program Operations. Prior to that he was director of the 21st Century Trust in London. He began his career in history education and maintains an interest in that area.
His publications, as editor and author, include The Communications Revolution (Ankara: Medcampus, 1995); Years of Renewal: European History 1470-1600 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2nd ed. 1999); The Seven Ages of Life (London: Centre for Reform, 2002); The Tudor Years (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2nd ed. 2003); and introductions to The Florentine Histories by Niccola Machiavelli (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004) and The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2005).
He is a trustee of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development, and a Fellow of Goodenough College, London.
System for the advance financing of medical expenses through contributions or taxes paid into a common fund to pay for all or part of health services specified in an insurance policy or law. The key elements are advance payment of premiums or taxes, pooling of funds, and eligibility for benefits on the basis of contributions or employment without an income or assets test. Health insurance may apply to a limited or comprehensive range of medical services and may provide for full or partial payment of the costs of specific services. Benefits may consist of the right to certain medical services or reimbursement of the insured for specified medical costs. Private health insurance is organized and administered by an insurance company or other private agency; public health insurance is run by the government (seesocial insurance). Both forms of health insurance are to be distinguished from socialized medicine and government medical-care programs, in which doctors are employed directly or indirectly by the goverment, which also owns the health-care facilities (e.g., Britain's National Health Service). See alsoinsurance.
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