Healthcare Reform in the States

We take the temperature of health care reforms across the country. While health legislation stalls at the federal level, states are moving ahead...with new programs of their own, designed to cover more people and lower costs. We'll look at what the states are doing, what successes they're having...and when they're running into trouble. Laura's guest is Ken Thorpe, consultant to the Vermont Health Commission and the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management, in the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University in Atlanta. He also co-directs the Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality. Professor Thorpe was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1995 where he coordinated all financial estimates and program impacts of President Clinton’s health care reform proposals for the White House. We'll also hear from Laura Tobler, Health Policy Analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Michael Doonan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University. He is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, and Director of the Council for Health Care Economics and Policy. Ruth Liu, Associate Secretary for Health Care Reform in California's Health and Human Services Agency.