I hope you’re all enjoying summer. During the past year, I have been a minor player in the US health debate. I did a teleconference June 16th with 200 folks from Progressive Democrats of America. Download my slide presentation on what Americans can learn from the Canadian healthcare system.
I was invited to be part of a debate about the US health care system September 16, 2008 at Rockefeller University NYC. My team included the 2008 winner of the Nobel Economics prize and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Emory University Professor Dr. Art Kellerman. We won! You can watch my presentation below, or watch the entire debate on YouTube.
On Tuesday May 5th, I met with the New Brunswick deputy minister, Don Ferguson in Fredericton with Mike McBane, the coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition and Debbie Lacelle, co-chairperson of the New Brunswick Health Coalition. We also met with assistant deputy ministers: Jean-Marc Depuis (Planning, sustainability, and e-health), Roberte O’Reagan, Executive Director Hospital Services, and Kelli Simmonds, Executive Director Research, Planning, Evaluation, and Policy. The meeting went very well. I gave a presentation on the application of queueing theory to reduce waits and delays in our system and then we had a frank talk about public sector solutions to wait times.
I was part of a Canadian Health Coalition delegation which requested a meeting with New Brunswick Health Minister Mike Murphy last week to discuss his province’s controversial plans for privatization. He couldn’t meet with us on April 15th but he has agreed to meet on Tuesday May 5th. I can hardly wait to meet with him and his department to inform them about the exciting public sector solutions to the province’s wait list problems. I’ll keep you posted about developments.