Presentation examines health insurance accessibility
Oct. 2, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- In a world where tragedy or injury can strike at any time, health insurance coverage is a must, but not always attainable for low-income individuals. A Harvard University professor will examine how the government can make coverage a reality for everyone in a Wednesday, Oct. 10, presentation at Western Michigan University titled "Sharing High Risks-How Government Can Make Health Insurance Markets More Efficient and More Accessible."
Dr. Katherine Swartz, professor of heath policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, will speak at 3 p.m. in Room 3508 of Knauss Hall. Her address, second in the series titled, "The Economics of Risk," is free and open to the public.
Swartz has investigated people without health insurance, their socio-economic characteristics, length of time they are without coverage and state regulations of individual markets. She will discuss what can be done to open the health insurance market to everyone.
Swartz is the principal investigator of two major projects. One, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, studies state regulations of individual health insurance markets, while the second is a Commonwealth Fund-sponsored evaluation of New York State's Healthy New York program to help uninsured individuals and low-income employees.
In its 38th year, the Werner Sichel Lecture-Seminar Series is sponsored by WMU's College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Economics and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. For more information, contact Dr. Donald J. Meyer, WMU associate professor of economics at (616) 387-5531 or <donald.meyer@wmich.edu> or contact the economics department at (616) 387-5535.
Media contact: Scott K. Crary, 616 387-8400