Turning the Heat Up on Medicare (AEI) Though Medicare has long faced financial challenges in meeting the health needs of its participants, as a result of recent health reforms the program is expected to lead the way in finding better ways to pay for, and more efficient ways to deliver, Americans’ health care. Yet Medicare will soon face the growing needs of baby boomers turning sixty-five, while providers are still paid for services--not health improvements--and large cuts in reimbursement could force some of them out of the program. Furthermore, beneficiaries are confronted with confusing and incomplete program benefits that cause most to seek additional coverage. At this AEI event, speakers will discuss what the latest reforms mean for Medicare, whether the program is up to the job, and what is at stake for doctors and patients.
Obamacare --Rewarding the Trial Bar and Promoting Litigation? (Heritage Foundation) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 represent the greatest change in healthcare and the law governing it ever passed by Congress. Will the complexity of this legislation, the changes it makes in existing law, and the new regulations issued by Health & Human Services, as well as other new boards and commissions, lead to more regulation and litigation? Will doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers, as well as employers who offer health coverage for their employees, be at greater risk for litigation and liability claims? Discussing these issues will be a leading member of Congress who is also a physician, as well two legal experts on healthcare litigation, licensing, and regulation.
Pakistan's Flood Emergency (Brookings) Brookings expert Elizabeth Ferris believes that the Pakistan floods will be one of the worst crises in history, as it has affected more than 20 million people and destroyed a significant portion of Pakistan’s agriculture. On September 15, Ferris will be on hand to discuss the disaster, specifically the short- and long-term challenges faced by the Pakistani government and the international community in responding to the floods. David Mark, senior editor at POLITICO, will moderate the discussion.
Broadcast to Broadband (New America Foundation) A proposed Order implementing open access to the vacant TV channels in every media market nationwide will be voted on at the Federal Communication Commission’s September 23 Open Meeting. Will reallocating the majority of TV frequencies from broadcasting to unlicensed broadband herald an era of “Wi-Fi on Steroids” – as Google co-founder Larry Page has proclaimed – or will it be of marginal utility? The debate over opening the vast wasteland of unused TV band spectrum capacity has stretched on since the FCC’s 2002 Spectrum Policy Task Force. In November 2008, the Commission provisionally approved unlicensed access to the White Space by a 5-0 vote. Now, after bitter debates between broadcasters, wireless microphone makers, high-tech companies and public interest advocates, a final vote to open the TV band for broadband is at hand.
Addressing an Increasingly Congested and Contested Electromagnetic Spectrum (CSIS) The Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) increasingly underpins all aspects of our daily lives, from remotely opening garage doors to controlling appliances, to gaming, banking, shopping, to enabling the use of infrared and radar sensors, GPS, and satellite communications by fisherman, firemen and fighter aircraft. Policies and processes to manage EMS affect both national security capabilities and concerns as well as economic infrastructure and policy.
The Internet and Innovation (New America Foundation) Associate Professor at Stanford Law School, Dr. Barbara van Schewick will discuss key lessons from her book Internet Architecture and Innovation. Using her expertise in economics, management science, engineering, networking and law, van Schewick shows how alternative network architectures can create very different economic environments for innovation. The Internet’s original architecture was based on four design principles – modularity, layering, and two versions of the celebrated but often misunderstood end-to-end arguments. This design, van Schewick demonstrates, fostered innovation in applications and allowed applications and services like e-mail, the World Wide Web, E-Bay, Google, Skype, Flickr, Blogger and Facebook to emerge.
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