Health Care Specialist Analyses Bush, Kerry Health Plans in Lawrence University Science Hall Lecture

With health care reform once again near the top of the political agendas in this year’s presidential election, Lawrence University economist Marty Finkler analyzes the programs proposed by the two major party candidates and the feasibility of their implementation in a Lawrence Science Hall Colloquium. Finkler presents “Health Care Reform: The Tradeoffs Before Us” Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102. A specialist in health care economics, Finkler will provide a brief history of health policy reform as well as an overview of the cost and quality of and access to health care services. The talk will examine the tradeoffs that collective decision-making requires and how neither of the two major proposals seriously addresses these choices. According to Finkler, the Bush proposal might be feasible, but it does little to address the fundamental choices whereas the Kerry proposal, while not likely to be feasible, does at least make a serious effort to address part of the problem. Neither proposal, says Finkler, contains a credible funding mechanism. Finkler, a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1979, co-founded the Menasha-based consulting firm Innovative Health Associates in 1993. A former Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellow in health care finance, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics at the University of California-San Diego, a master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science and his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Minnesota