KHI NEWS SERVICE
TOPEKA, March 9
A national expert on health care reform will be here Tuesday to meet with top policymakers, including legislators, the governor and the Kansas Health Policy Authority.
Len Nichols is director of the health policy program for the New America Foundation, a public policy think tank formed in 1999 to bring new ideas to the forefront. On the health front, the foundation aims to expand health insurance coverage to all Americans while reining in costs and improving efficiency of the health care system. New America prides itself on promoting centrist policies. Its president and founder is
Ted Halstead, co-author of the book, “The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics.”
“Dr. Nichols has a tremendous amount of expertise in economic growth and fiscal and health policy.
His presentations and discussions will prove to be important as the Health Policy Authority Board, (Health for All Kansans) steering committee and legislators move forward with plans for health reform and access for all Kansans,” said Marcia Nielsen, executive director of the health policy authority. “I would like to thank Bob St. Peter at the Kansas Health Institute for making Dr. Nichols” trip to Kansas possible. The Health Institute has been and will continue to be a critical resource for health reform.”
Nichols will make a presentation to the health policy authority and the steering committee at 9:30 a.m. at the Eisenhower State Office Building, 4th floor conference room B, 700 SW Jackson. His presentation will follow the steering committee meeting, which begins at 8:30 a.m. The presentation is open to the public.
He will focus on the concept of health insurance connectors. There currently are at least two varying proposals for connectors or exchanges being considered by Kansas legislators.
Nichols will make a second public presentation at 11:30 a.m. at the Statehouse in the Old Supreme Courtroom, 313-S.
Throughout the day he will meet privately with key legislators and separately with the governor.
Kansas policymakers have been hearing from a variety of visiting health policy experts this session. In February, Heritage Foundation research fellow Edmund F. Haislmaier met privately and publicly with policymakers to describe the connector models he had worked with in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and elsewhere. Last month, they also heard from Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute and Christine Herrera of the American Legislative Exchange Council. She came to talk about Medicaid reform.
Also next week,
Stephen Moses
of the Center for Long-term Care Reform, is scheduled to speak to the House GOP health care task force. That is set for noon Wednesday in Room 514-S in the Statehouse. At noon, Thursday, the House GOP task force is scheduled to hear from Michael Bond, director of the Center for Health Care Policy at The Buckeye Institute. That also is in Room 514-S.
Before joining the New America Foundation, Nichols was vice president at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a principal researcher for the Urban Institute, and senior advisor for health policy at the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton reform efforts of 1993-94. He has testified frequently before Congress and state legislatures and been widely published in health journals.
Previously, he was chairman of the economics department at Wellesley College, where he taught for 10 years. He also served as a member of the Competitive Pricing Advisory Commission (CPAC) and the 2001 Technical Review Panel for the Medicare Trustees Reports. He was on the advisory panel to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation”s Covering America project and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Pan American Health Organization. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois.