Rice on Health: Event Sponsored by the Emeriti Assn.

Tom Rice

Thomas Rice, Professor, Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health.  “U.S. Health Policy: Prospects After Recent Elections”

Day/Date/Time/Place: Thursday, Dec. 6, Hacienda Room of the Faculty Center. 

An informal reception with light refreshments will begin at 1:00 p.m.  The presentations begin at 1:30 and will allow opportunity for questions and discussion.

Professor Rice is a health economist who received his doctorate in Economics from UC-Berkeley.  His research focuses on problems inherent in competition and markets in health care.  He has conducted studies on how large numbers of Medicare prescription drug plans affects the quality of choices made by Medicare beneficiaries. Author of The Economics of Health Care Reconsidered, Third Edition. Prof. Rice was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.

We have seen major events, including the election of President Obama, the belabored passage of the Affordable Care Act, hailed as a major accomplishment by some, despised by others as “Obamacare” and leading to Republican congressional victories in 2010, the Supreme Court decision upholding the major parts of the Act, and the heated debates on health care as we approached the 2012 presidential election.  Issues ahead now are (a) the goal of universal coverage, (b) cost containment in the context of federal budget deficits, (c) the future of Medicare, (d) the goal of improved quality and efficiency, and (e) questions of financing.

Professor Rice will help us understand these issues and give a sense of what we might expect in the future. There will also be two discussants: Professor Gerald Kominski (Public Health) and Professor Allison Hoffman (School of Law).