The Massachusetts Legislature’s Medicare For All Caucus, Mass-Care, and Western Mass. Medicare for All host a virtual panel and Q&A to examine the public health implications of a single payer healthcare system in Massachusetts and what it will take to move forward.
Featured Panelists
- Professor William Hsiao is the K.T. Li Professor of Economics, Emeritus, in Department of Health Policy and Management and Department of Global Health and Population, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He is also a fully qualified actuary with extensive experience in private and social insurance. Dr. Hsiao’s health economic and policy research program spans across developed and less developed nations. He is a leading global expert in universal health insurance, which he has studied for more than forty years. He has been actively engaged in designing health system reforms and universal health insurance programs for many countries, including the USA, Taiwan, China, Colombia, Poland, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Sweden, Cyprus, Uganda and most recently for Malaysia and South Africa. He also designed a single payer universal insurance model for the state of Vermont which intended to serve as a vanguard for the USA. Vermont passed a law based on his recommendations. However the recent set-back in Vermont’s economic development has put the implementation of the single-payer system in question.
- Olivia Sonderman is a medical student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). She has just earned a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy at Harvard University. At UNMC, she served as Co-president of the Student Delegates, a grassroots interprofessional student organization that educates students on legislation and advocacy at a local and federal level. She has been involved in the Nebraska Medical Association and American Medical Association throughout her medical career, experiences which informed her decision to seek a public health degree. She is interested in creating solutions for both local and global health disparities. Olivia plans to pursue a residency in anesthesiology and incorporate health advocacy and policymaking throughout her career. She hopes to run for public office at the state level. She stays sane by writing creatively, playing guitar, and getting on the soccer field.
- Sameen Ansari is a fourth year medical student at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. She recently completed an MPH in Health Policy at Harvard. In medical school, Sameen has been working with underserved populations and helped establish health literacy training for patients experiencing homelessness. In order to be a better advocate for her patients, Sameen joined the Michigan State Medical Society and served on the Board of Directors for two years. In the future, Sameen hopes to be a Family Physician who is directly involved in the policy making process, and continues to fight to make health more equitable.Both Olivia and Sameen served as Public Health Fellows for Senator Comerford and the Joint Committee on Public Health.
Click the below buttons to view the slideshow from the virtual panel and to read the related report.
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