Joe White, Ph.D. – Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies at Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

Health care finance in the United States is uniquely flawed: we are the only rich democracy without a national guarantee of care, but manage to spend fifty percent more of our economy on health care than any other country.

But health policy reform ideas in the United States are not unique at all: most of the ideas that are promoted in the pages of the New England Journal of Medicine or Journal of the American Medical Association or Health Affairs or innumerable conferences are also being proposed, and partially implemented, in countries with better cost and access.

There is an international agenda for “transforming” health care to improve value: access and quality for the money. It includes ideas like “paying for performance” instead of for individual services; using electronic health records to improve care; “integrating” care across “siloes” of hospitals, specialists, and general practice; and using better social services to reduce illness and, thereby, health care costs. These measures have had limited success in the U.S. Are they working better in Europe? Results are hard to measure, but Professor White will report on what he has learned from both published studies and interviewing experts in Denmark, England, France and the Netherlands.

A Special Note:

This is the final “Friday Lunch” of the semester and of 2018. We will begin again, same place and same time, on January 18 next year. The schedule of speakers and topics is in progress, but we know now that we will begin with Chris Howell of Oberlin on the topic originally scheduled for this week: “Union Decline in a Populist Era: The Experience of Western Democracies.” Other speakers will include our Hiram C. Haydn Professor of History Emeritus, David Hammack, on “The Problem of Philanthropy in an Age of Rising Inequality,” and the University of Akron’s David B Cohen on the Trump presidency halfway through this term.

Thank you to all the speakers and participants during our Fall, 2018 discussions. Many thanks also to the College of Arts and Sciences for funding; the University Library administration for space; to donors who helped with the expenses for coffee and treats; and to Tim O’Shea and Andrew Lucker for their help in making these events happen. We wish you all a joyful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

As Director of the Center for Policy Studies, Joe White organizes and usually moderates the Friday Lunch discussions, as well as sponsoring 3-6 other public programs each year. His appointment as Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy is in the Department of Political Science, and he also has a secondary appointment as a Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences. His research focuses on federal budget politics and policy; health care, especially cost control and reform; the politics of social insurance programs such as Medicare and Social Security; and differences between rich democracies’ health care systems. He is author or co-author of three books and about six dozen articles, with his most recent work being on relations between the president and Congress in federal budgeting and on budgeting for healthcare programs around the world.

Professor White spent the Spring, 2018 semester on sabbatical, first in Lyon, France at the Institut d’études politiques (Sciences-Po) and then in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the Erasmus University School of Health Policy and Management. He is very grateful to his kind hosts, who enabled the wandering around talking to people that he calls “research” on European health care reforms.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our programs are open to all and no registration is required. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library.

* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.