For Immediate Release

Contact: John M. Martino
Phone Number:  (215) 895-1186
Date: 05/12/03

USP To Hold Symposium On The Future Of Medicare 

For the first time together, the former heads of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS, formerly HCFA) – Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., Bruce Vladeck, Ph.D., and Nancy-Ann DeParle, J.D. – will convene to discuss the future of Medicare and consider what the program should look like in 2010. Dr. Samuel Thier will moderate the discussion. The symposium will take place Wednesday, May 14, 3 p.m., in Griffith Hall, 600 S. 43rd St.

Medicare is facing critical challenges. In 2002 alone, the federal government spent $252 billion on Medicare and the number of elderly beneficiaries is rapidly outpacing wage-earning taxpayers. In addition, the variety of life-saving treatments is outpacing Medicare’s sustainability of these options. Recognizing the need for reform, Congress will consider President Bush’s three-tiered Medicare proposal and wide-ranging alternatives as early as Memorial Day.

For more information about the symposium, please visit www.usip.edu/universityrelations/medicare.shtml

PANELISTS:

Gail R. Wilensky, Ph.D., John M. Olin Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, (HCFA Administrator from 1990-1993)

Bruce C. Vladeck, Ph.D., Professor of Health Policy and Senior Vice President for Policy at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, (HCFA Administrator from 1993-1997)

Nancy-Ann DeParle, J.D., Senior Advisor to JPMorgan Partners, LLC, and adjunct professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, (HCFA Administrator from 1997-2000)

Samuel O. Thier, M.D., Chairman of the Commonwealth Fund, professor of medicine and professor of health care policy at Harvard University Medical School, and a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

###