Career Development : Calendar
Talking Health: What's ahead for Medicare |
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12/07/09 |
Past episodes of Talking Health
Covering the Underinsured (July 2008)
Political Promises (Nov. 2008)
Health Insurance (May 1, 2009)
Health reform coverage: The key issues (Sept. 2009)
Press release: New webcast series for health journalists debuts July 9
Click here for the recording of this event.
What do current Medicare beneficiaries think of the program? What do they like and don't like? How would they change their coverage if they could? Experts will explore the high out-of-pocket costs some beneficiaries still must still pay and whether they have too many choices for supplemental and drug coverage. What are the prospects for preventive care services that many beneficiaries say they want? Experts will also look at the long-term prospects for Medicare.
Our panel of experts and journalists will discuss these issues and more with an eye toward what journalists need to know to best inform their readers and viewers.
The speakers
Michelle Andrews is a New York-based freelance writer who writes about health care for The New York Times, CBS MoneyWatch.com and Money. She has been a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and SmartMoney magazine.
Trudy Lieberman is the director of the health and medicine reporting program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. She is a contributing editor for Columbia Journalism Review, a contributor to The Nation and the author of several books. She has won numerous awards for her reporting including two National Magazine Awards. She also was a Fulbright Scholar to Japan and a John J. McCloy fellow to Germany to study health care in those countries. She is the immediate past president of the AHCJ board of directors.
John Rother is the executive vice president of policy and strategy for AARP. Prior to coming to AARP in 1984, Rother served eight years with the U.S. Senate as special counsel for labor and health to former Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.), then as staff director and chief counsel for the Special Committee on Aging under its chairman, Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.). He serves on several boards and commissions, including as the chair of Generations United, and vice-chair of the National Quality Forum. He also serves on the boards of Pension Rights Center, the Alliance for Healthcare Reform and advisory Boards to Kaiser Permanente, Google and several Congressional fellowships. Rother is an honors graduate of Oberlin College and the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Law.
Bruce Vladeck, Ph.D., is senior adviser to Nexera, Inc., a consulting subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association. He was administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration from 1993 through 1997, a period marked by widespread changes to Medicaid programs. His work at HCFA was recognized in 1995 by a National Public Service Award. He remained closely involved in Medicare policy in 1998-99 as a presidential appointee to the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. After leaving HCFA, Vladeck spent six years at Mount Sinai Medical Center, as professor of health policy and geriatrics and senior vice president for policy of the medical center. Vladeck joined Ernst & Young's Health Sciences Advisory Services in 2004. He left that position for 16 months in 2006-07 to serve as interim president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey after it entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney. Vladeck is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the New York Academy of Medicine, and serves on the boards of the Medicare Rights Center and the March of Dimes and on the New York City Board of Health.