When: Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 2:00 - 3:40 p.m. EDT
Online only: https://www.brookings.edu/events/are-u-s-health-care-prices-too-high-too-low-or-some-mix-of-the-two/
What: In light of the major financial burden that health care places on many households and the limited competition in many health care markets, some policymakers and experts have called for governments to play a larger role in determining the prices of health care services, such as by regulating those prices or introducing a public option. The late Uwe Reinhardt wrote and spoke for many years in support of a larger role for the public sector in determining health care prices.
On September 9, the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy will, in honor of Uwe’s work, host the first of three webinars examining whether a larger public role is appropriate. During this first webinar, a panel of experts will review evidence commonly used to assess the prices paid by privately insured Americans, including cross-country comparisons, cross-region comparisons within the United States, and comparisons of the prices paid by public and private payers. Panelists will discuss what this evidence says about where prices are too high or too low and how policymakers might respond.
The event will also feature introductory remarks that will place the full webinar series in the context of Uwe’s long work on this topic. The event will open with Leonard Schaeffer, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy professor and Judge Robert Maclay Widney chair, who knew Uwe well over a long period, followed by Richard Besser, the president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Tsung-Mei-Cheng, Uwe’s wife and colleague, who in recent years has written about initiatives in Germany and Taiwan to constrain health care prices, will speak about Uwe’s thinking on these issues.
Viewers can submit question for panelists by emailing events@brookings.edu or via Twitter with #HealthCarePrices.