Upcoming Event, 3/26: A Snappy Evening On Single Payer — The Pros, The Cons, And What's Possible

Way back in 2009, NPR's Scott Horsley wrote:

Many of the world's industrialized countries have a single-payer health care system, in which government administers all medical care. Support for such a system exists in the U.S.; even President Obama has expressed admiration for it. Yet it is absent from the debate.

That is no longer true. As the campaign season for the 2020 election begins to heat up, we've gone from that 2009 piece -- Single Payer: The Health Care Plan Not On The Table - to this 2019 Forbes headline: Democratic 2020 Hopefuls: All Roads Lead To Single Payer.

Do they? Next Tuesday, March 26, come spend an evening beginning at 6:30 getting up to speed on the topic in WBUR's new event space, Cityspace. Ask questions, get a reality check, witness — and participate in — a lively debate that includes people who know a lot about this issue.

Tickets here. Admission $5 to cover costs.

Guests:

Adam Gaffney,
Dr. Adam Gaffney, MD, MPH, is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance, and serves as president of Physicians for a National Health Program, a non-profit organization that advocates for single-payer health-care reform.  Dr. Gaffney is also a writer and public health researcher, and is the author of "To Heal Humankind: The Right to Health in History," published by Routledge in 2017.

John McDonough
Prof. John E. McDonough, DrPH, MPA, is Professor of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the HSPH Center for Executive and Continuing Professional Education. Between 2008 and 2010, he served as a senior advisor on National Health Reform to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where he worked on the development and passage of the Affordable Care Act. Between 2003 and 2008, he served as Executive Director of Health Care for All, Massachusetts’ leading consumer health advocacy organization, where he played a key role in passage and implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law.

Anya Rader Wallack
Prof. Anya Rader Wallack, Ph.D., is Associate Director of the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health (CESH) and a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice within Brown University’s School of Public Health. CESH specializes in systematic review of medical evidence, meta-analysis and related research and statistical methods. She served previously in Rhode Island state government as Director of HealthSource RI, Rhode Island’s health insurance exchange, then Medicaid Director, and then Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services. She also has served in Vermont state government as Chair of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board, and as Special Assistant for Health Reform for two governors.