The students of Professor Gary Wyckoff's Topics in Public Policy classes tackled the public health care system on Sunday, May 4. Students were divided into two groups and charged with the task of devising a plan to cover the nation's uninsured and growing medical costs. Both group's plan had to be specific, comprehensive, fiscally sound, ethically defensible and politically feasible.
Students spoke for about 20 minutes and participated in a half-hour question period by three alumni experts in health care. They included David Duggan '75, professor of medicine at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse; Tim Finan '75, president and CEO, Olean General Hospital, Olean, N.Y.; and Karen Volmer '94, assistant professor of health policy and administration, Penn State University.
The first group proposed a plan called the American Health Assurance Plan. The plan portrayed the American health care system as one of the worst in the world and also one of the most expensive. The American Health Insurance Plan proposed to maintain the private insurance industry, sustain employer sponsored insurance, incorporate non-nursing home Medicaid, and subsidizing premiums and co-payments so that all Americans can receive quality health care.
The second plan, called the MOSAIC plan, was inspired by the health care systems of Massachusetts, Germany and Japan. The basis of the plan centered on income-based subsidies and Medicare reform, health guilds, large employer mandates, individual mandates and a minimum benefits standard.
-- by Danielle Raulli '10
Students spoke for about 20 minutes and participated in a half-hour question period by three alumni experts in health care. They included David Duggan '75, professor of medicine at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse; Tim Finan '75, president and CEO, Olean General Hospital, Olean, N.Y.; and Karen Volmer '94, assistant professor of health policy and administration, Penn State University.
The first group proposed a plan called the American Health Assurance Plan. The plan portrayed the American health care system as one of the worst in the world and also one of the most expensive. The American Health Insurance Plan proposed to maintain the private insurance industry, sustain employer sponsored insurance, incorporate non-nursing home Medicaid, and subsidizing premiums and co-payments so that all Americans can receive quality health care.
The second plan, called the MOSAIC plan, was inspired by the health care systems of Massachusetts, Germany and Japan. The basis of the plan centered on income-based subsidies and Medicare reform, health guilds, large employer mandates, individual mandates and a minimum benefits standard.
-- by Danielle Raulli '10
