Last Sunday, I attended a presentation sponsored by the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition. Renowned economist, Dr. William Hsiao spoke about the recently signed law for a single payer system in the State of Vermont. Dr. Hsiao is the K.T. Li Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is one of the most interesting figures in health care. In 1988, the government of Taiwan asked the Harvard School of Public Health professor to lead an effort to overhaul the country’s health-care system.
Dr. Hsiao and his team of researchers were contracted by the state legislature to develop three options for their consideration a single payer plan, a public option and a hybrid plan that would create a public and private single payer designed plan.
It was a very informative presentation and because of my interest in single payer and a public option to increase efficiency and bring down the cost of our health care system I wanted to share his ideas with you. He will explain the workings of the Vermont system he helped design along with the other options. In addition he will describe the funding and how they dealt with various aspects of covering Vermont residents and workers, as well as how self-employed workers fit in to the system. What you will listen to are excerpts from an interview posted on the web. Unfortunately, I was unable to record the presentation in St. Paul but most of the information is here excerpted from an online interview. You can listen into the archived program here: kymnradio.net.
If you want to learn more about the Minnesota Health Plan, which is the bill I introduced into the Minnesota State Legislature you can read about it and other current Minnesota health care issues by visiting the MUHCC website or the website for a Minnesota Health Plan.