Could the Topic Be Hotter: Crossroads Lecture Considers Health Care Reform

Barbara Safriet will lecture on health care reform this Friday at Orcas Center

The lecture series Crossroads: Ideas for a New Century will continue on Friday, November 6, 7:30 at Orcas Center with a presentation by Barbara Safriet entitled Health Care Reform: Questions and Consequences.

Of all the issues being tackled by the Obama Administration, health care is perhaps the most dauntingly complex.  While the United States has the most complex and expensive health care delivery system in the world, and boasts some of the most sophisticated technology, we have not gained corresponding improvements in the health of our citizens.  Indeed, we lag behind even some developing countries in several important measures of health, such as infant mortality.  So we know that we need to rein in costs while ensuring broader access to high-quality care.  Beyond that consensus, though, things quickly grow confusing, with a bewildering array of players, plans, stakeholders, and choices.

How did we get to this point?  What forces have shaped our current system, and how might they impede or promote a more rational approach?  What should citizens and health care consumers listen for as they try to make sense of the ongoing debates?  As a long-time observer of, and participant in, the health-care policy arena, Barbara Safriet is especially well-equipped to explore these questions.  She received her J.D. in from Maryland University School of Law and her LL.M. from Yale Law School, and currently serves as a Visiting Professor of Health Law and Policy at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was formerly a member of the full-time faculty.  From 1988 to 2007, Safriet was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where she taught seminars on health law and policy and on the regulation of health-care providers.  While at Yale she

also helped to launch the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, and sat on the Board of University Health and the Executive Committee of the Center for Bioethics.

Professor Safriet has also been actively involved in health care policy nationwide.  She has published and lectured extensively on topics of administrative and constitutional law and health care workforce regulation, and has served as a member of the Pew Commission on the Health Professions.  In addition, she has advised numerous agencies, professional associations, and foundations, including the the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the U.S. Public Health Service, the National Council of State Legislatures, the National Rural Health Association, the American Hospital Association, the  American Nurses Association, the Rockefeller Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund.

The Crossroads series presents thoughtful, provocative speakers who help the Orcas community think about timely issues, both local and global.  The series is sponsored by the Friends of the Orcas Island Library in cooperation with Orcas Island Public Library and Orcas Center, and this event is generously co-sponsored by the Orcas Medical Center Foundation.  Crossroads is made possible through the generous support of the Daniel and Margaret Carper Foundation and the Crossroads Associates, together with the modest ticket price of $10.  Tickets tickets may be purchased at Darvills and the Library, and those who need complimentary tickets may sign up for them at the Senior Center or the Library.