Below are links to the slides for the talk I’m giving to undergraduates at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School soon. It’s called “The Greatest Challenge: The US health care crisis and the lessons of a unique experiment.” And, by “greatest challenge” I really mean greatest domestic policy challenge. The greatest challenge globally is the climate change problem.
The talk is in two parts, with a few slides that transition between them: (1) the health care cost crisis and (2) what the RAND health insurance experiment (HIE) tells us about what can be done about it. Note that part 2 doesn’t by itself lead us to anything like a full solution to the problems described in part 1. That’s why this is the HIE version of the talk. Other versions I might create later would add more to the story. For example, I might produce other talks with different back-ends, swapping out (or adding to) the HIE stuff with something on cost shifting, the balance of hospital and insurer market power, the implications of Medicaid expansion and the Cadillac tax, or Medicare private plan payment policy, all things that relate directly to my research.
Those would all be more advanced talks. This HIE one would be appropriate for a lay audience, advanced undergrads, or junior graduate students interested in public policy. Anyone deeply steeped in health policy or economics would be bored, though might like the figures (there are lots).
Click here for PDF-version of slides
Click here for Power Point version of slides
Are you interested in this talk at your institution or community organization? Do you want to swipe any of this for use on your blog? If so, go ahead and use the slides in any way you like. Just tell your audience where they came from and about this blog and I’ll be happy. Or don’t and I may never know, but you’ll suffer the bad karma. You can also contact me if you want me to speak or need a direct quote. I can’t promise to make every offered speaking engagement, but in a world with infinite resources or in which I had a dedicated stream of funding for this sort of thing I would. Boston area talks would be relatively easier for me to do.
Please also let me know in the comments about anything that occurs to you that might improve the slides. Keep in mind, however, that the point is to introduce the health care cost problem and summarize the most influential study relevant to it in 45-60 minutes. It is not a talk about everything pertaining to health care or health care costs. The meta meme is to convince people that research and evidence are relevant to policy. I’m just promoting what I do. The motivating question for me in preparing these slides was: if students were to know one or two things about health policy and relevant research, what would it be?
What you cannot tell from the slides is what I will say. The Power Point document has embedded notes, mostly taken from blog posts. Another way to get some additional info on some of what I’d say is to read those posts. They’re all listed with links below. Unless indicated otherwise, I’m the author. The list is roughly in the order in which relevant slides appear in the talk.
- Health care and the federal budget: some graphs, 8/30/10.
- Another look at the train wreck, 9/18/10.
- The most recent CBO federal revenue and spending projections, 9/23/10.
- Doing CBO’s job, 9/24/10 [better graphs than the prior post, but lacking commentary].
- Demography is not destiny, 10/4/10.
- This one is interesting (pun intended), 9/25/10.
- What makes the US health care system so expensive – Conclusion, 10/1/10, by Aaron Carroll.
- The blame du jour, 9/10/10, by Aaron Carroll.
- Health outcomes report cards, by country, 9/16/10.
- A little bit about the RAND health insurance experiment, 9/13/10.
- A little bit more about the RAND health insurance experiment, 9/15/10.
