The Health Care Crisis: The Need for Reform

September 11, 2006, 7:00pm – 8:30pm

About This Event

The American health care system is in crisis - almost 46 million Americans live without health insurance, while families with health care coverage, and employers who provide coverage to their workers, struggle to cope with rapidly rising insurance costs. Over the past five years, health insurance premiums have risen five times faster than wages, affecting wage growth, pension viability, and business development. Most importantly, workers and their families are losing coverage, facing higher costs, and experiencing greater insecurity. The problems in our health care system cut across American society, from American businesses, to families, to communities. Our nation faces the challenge of assuring affordable health care for all Americans, controlling health care costs and improving quality of care. Please join Dr. Henry Simmons and Mary Caferro for a discussion of Montana health care issues and national health care reform.

The Neighborhood Center
200 S. Cruse
Helena, MT 59601
Map and Directions Featured Speakers:
Henry E. Simmons, M.D., President, National Coalition on Health Care
Mary Caferro, State Legislator and Executive Director, WEEL

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW
Washington, DC 20005

Biographies

Henry Simmons, M.D., is president of the National Coalition on Health Care, the nation's largest and most broadly representative alliance working to improve America's health care system.  The Coalition is comprised of almost 100 organizations - including large and small businesses, labor, consumer, religious and primary care provider groups, and health and pension funds.  Dr. Simmons has served as president since the organization's inception in 1990.  He has held a variety of distinguished posts in both the public and private sectors.  During the Nixon and Ford administrations, Dr. Simmons served as deputy assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), director of the Office of Professional Standards Review at HEW, and director of the Bureau of Drugs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Following his federal service, Dr. Simmons worked with the J. Walter Thompson Company, served as president and chief executive officer of the Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, New Jersey, and was director of the Health and Medical Consulting Division at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Company.  His university affiliations have included the George Washington University School of Business and Government, the Tufts New England Medical Center, the Rutgers University School of Medicine, Georgetown University, and the George Washington University School of Medicine.

Mary Caferro represents House District 80 (Helena) in the Montana Legislature and serves as the executive director of Working for Economic Empowerment and Liberation (WEEL), a Helena-based advocacy organization dedicated to economic and social justice. A long-time advocate for low-income families, Ms. Caferro sponsored the Montana Children's Health Care Act (HB 522) in 2005. This legislation expanded eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP coverage to an additional 3,800 children.

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The Policy Institute works to change public policy to reflect social justice values.  The Policy Institute accomplishes its mission by developing and advocating for policy initiatives which frame public discussion in progressive terms like equality, opportunity, and economic justice and by providing leadership development training for social justice leaders in Montana.