June 30, 2004
Speaker Biographies
Joseph Antos is the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at AEI and an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. He was the assistant director for health and human resources, the division providing Congress with analyses of proposed changes to federal programs and policies in areas such as health, income security, education, employment, and housing, at the Congressional Budget Office. Mr. Antos was the director of the Office of Research and Demonstrations and deputy director of the Office of the Actuary at the Health Care Financing Administration. He was the deputy chief of staff and the principal deputy assistant secretary for management and budget at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Howard Bedlin is vice president for public policy and advocacy for the National Council on the Aging (NCOA). He is responsible for all of NCOA's federal and state legislative advocacy efforts on issues and programs of concern to seniors, including the Older Americans Act, Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care, income security, and community services programs.
Prior to joining NCOA, Mr. Bedlin was a legislative representative with AARP for over ten years. At AARP, he led the organization's efforts to enact landmark legislation to improve nursing home quality. Before that, Mr. Bedlin was the deputy director of government affairs for the National Association for Home Care and the Counsel for Public Policy for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Mr. Bedlin is current co-chair of the Coalition on Disability and Aging, the Generations United Public Policy Committee and Leadership Council of Aging Organizations Long-Term Care Task Force. He has testified before the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee on Medicare issues, and led the successful efforts to reauthorize the Older Americans Act and fix the Medicare Home Health "homebound" problem. In March of 2001, Mr. Bedlin was recognized in the New York Times as the second most influential senior advocate in the nation.
Julie L. Goon serves as director of Medicare Outreach and senior advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this position, she is responsible for coordinating the campaign to educate Medicare beneficiaries about the expanded benefits and choices they will receive under the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Prior to joining HHS, Ms. Goon served as senior vice president of Government Affairs for AHIP (previously AAHP-HIAA), the oldest and largest trade association representing the managed health care industry. In this position, she was responsible for AHIP's Congressional lobbying strategy, grassroots outreach, coalition building and the association's political activities. Prior to joining AHIP, Ms. Goon was director of Federal Relations for Humana Inc. Ms. Goon also worked for the Colorado Legislative Council, a staff organization for the Colorado General Assembly, from 1982-1986.
Robert B. Helms is a resident scholar and the director of health policy studies at AEI. He has written and lectured extensively on health policy, health economics, and pharmaceutical economic issues. Mr. Helms currently participates in the Consensus Group, an informal task force that is developing market-oriented health reform concepts. From 1981 to 1989, he served as the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation and deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Helms is the editor of several AEI publications on health policy: Medicare in the Twenty-first Century: Seeking Fair and Efficient Reform; American Health Policy: Critical Issues for Reform; Health Policy Reform: Competition and Controls; Health Care Policy and Politics: Lessons from Four Countries; and Competitive Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Grace-Marie Turner is president of the Galen Institute, a public policy research organization that she founded in 1995 to promote an informed debate over free-market ideas for health reform. She speaks and writes extensively about incentives to promote a more competitive, consumer-driven marketplace in the health sector. She also is founder and facilitator of the Health Policy Consensus Group, which serves as a forum for analysts from market-oriented think tanks around the country to analyze and develop health policy recommendations. Mrs. Turner is the editor of Empowering Health Care Consumers through Tax Reform, published by the University of Michigan Press, which explains how tax reform can lead to a better functioning market in the health sector. The Galen Institute has been instrumental in promoting Health Savings Accounts and other consumer-friendly ideas that transfer power over health care decisions from bureaucracies to individuals.
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