CONTACT: Matt Smith

(518) 434-3100

Besieged by the related problems of soaring Medicaid and private health-insurance costs, a growing number of states are enacting innovative programs to curb expenses, improve services and expand access to affordable health care. Some of the nation’s leading health policy experts will gather at an Empire Center policy forum in Albany on Sept. 26 to share insights and ideas that might offer models for New York State.

“As we look ahead to the approaching change in leadership at the highest levels of New York State government, this is a good time to assess what other states might teach us about improving health care,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

The half-day forum, “Health Policy Issues for New York,” will be held in the new Key Cultural Center at the Albany Institute of History and Art, 125 Washington Avenue. It will run from 9 a.m. through lunch. A full agenda and complete list of experts appearing can be found here.

Topics of forum-panel discussions will include the recently enacted Massachusetts health-insurance mandate. Other panel topics will include Medicaid reforms adopted in Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and other states.

The keynote speaker will be David Gratzer, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and author of the new book, The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care (Encounter Books, October 2006). Gratzer, a physician in Canada, has researched and written widely on topics including Medicare and Medicaid, drug re-importation and FDA reform. Other speakers will include Florida State Rep. Gayle Harrell, who played a leading role in the passage of a Medicaid-reform program in the Sunshine State.

The Empire Center is a non-partisan, independent think tank.

For further information on the policy forum, contact the Empire Center’s Kathryn McCall at 518-434-3100.

Tags:

You may also like

Hammond Submits CDPAP Testimony to Congress

The Empire Center's Bill Hammond today submitted written testimony for a congressional hearing on healthcare fraud. Hammond's testimony to the focuses on evidence of overuse and wa Read More

Empire Center Calls for Release of PPL Records

The Empire Center is calling on the Hochul administration to promptly release records of its spring 2024 communications with Public Partnerships LLC, the company that later won a controversial $1 billion contract under Medi Read More

Hammond Warns of Imminent Medicaid “Iceberg” in Legislative Testimony 

New York’s Medicaid program is currently on a crash course for fiscal disaster in the near future, warns Bill Hammond. Read More

State Budget Proposal Doubles Down on Reckless Spending, Empire Center Says

After Governor Hochul’s budget unveiling this afternoon, Empire Center experts offered their reactions to the latest framework. Read More

Personal Care Spending Eight Times Higher in New York Than National Average, New Report Shows

New York’s Medicaid program spends roughly $12 billion per year on in-home “personal care” for the elderly and disabled. Read More

Budget Testimony: Dangerous Misplaced Priorities on Health Care

In his spoken testimony, Hammond had intended to highlight key shortcomings of the governor's budget, including its lack of a plan to investigate the state's pandemic response Read More

New York Spends More than All Other States on Education and Medicaid

New York’s spending on education and Medicaid will leave a hole in the budget after federal COVID relief money runs out Read More

NYS Reduced Funding for Public Health in Decade Before Pandemic, Expert Says

Sharp reductions in state funding for core public health functions over the past decade may have weakened New York’s defenses against the coronavirus pandemic, according to testimony delivered today by Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s senior fellow for health policy. Read More