Nearly 100 people turned out for a Sept. 26 Empire Center forum, featuring some of the nation’s top health experts who spoke on issues ranging from curbing health-care expenses and Medicaid reform to improving services and making private insurance more affordable.

The forum aimed to assess what New York — home of the most expensive Medicaid program in the nation — may learn from other states about reining in costs and making the delivery of health services more efficient and accessible.

David Gratzer, a physician and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, delivered the keynote address. Author of the forthcoming book, The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care, Gratzer maintained it was possible to improve the quality of health care and insure more people without raising costs and expanding government. Gratzer not only called for revamping government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, he argued that greater choice and competition would provide working families more control over the health care they receive.

Gayle Harrell — a member of the Florida House of Representatives and chair of its Health Care General Committee — also spoke at the forum. Harrell said when it comes to Medicaid reform, it’s essential to focus on patient education — making recipients understand, for instance, that it’s more cost efficient to see a family doctor for minor ailments such as a sore throat than going to an emergency room. Harrell said a key part of Florida’s reform was an initiative allowing employed recipients to opt-out of the public health-care program and direct their Medicaid-premium to an employer-sponsored plan.

Panelist Amy Lischkow — director of Health Care, Finance, and Policy for Massachusetts — discussed the Bay State’s policy mandating that all residents buy health coverage or pay a tax. Lischkow said key to the plan — passed to curb the Bay State’s highest per-capita health-care spending in the nation — was its focus on insurance-market reform, which has resulted in better values for consumers.

More information on the Empire Center forum can be found here.