Editorial: Community should attend health care forum

• L. Christopher Plein, Ph.D., Eberly Professor of Outstanding Public Service, chair of the Division of Public Administration, assistant dean for the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences.

• Stephanie Frisbee, Ph.D., from Canada, professor in the Department of Community Medicine and a doctoral candidate.

• Michael Hendryx, M.S., associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine and director of the West Virginia Rural Health Research Center.

• Stratford Douglas, Ph.D., associate professor of economics, with research in applied econometrics.

Those in attendance will be allowed to ask the panelists questions regarding health care reform during the forum.

Also, questions can be submitted in advance to specific panelists via wvuhealthcareforum@gmail.com.

The WVU Young Democrats will have an information booth in the Mountainlair from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 20.

The Daily Athenaeum strongly encourages individuals from all political viewpoints and affiliations to attend the forum.

The event will be an excellent opportunity to ask questions to experts in the fields of health care, public policy and economics.

Use this event to learn about these areas and possibly heighten your own opinion on the subjects.

The event takes place amid the controversial debate regarding United States health care reform, as President Barack Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, believes that the debate will end in compromise – perhaps without a government-run option.

Currently, five different proposals have passed in committees in the House of Representatives and Senate.

Those proposals will then be merged into a single bill, to be further debated, altered and ultimately voted on.

Obama and Congressional Democrats support the public option, which they hope will drive down costs, increase coverage and end discrimination for preexisting conditions.

Republicans, almost unanimously (the exception being Maine moderate Olympia Snowe), reject that public option.

Regardless of political affiliations, members of the WVU and Morgantown community should attend the forum Tuesday night.

Be respectful – the panelists have no agenda other than sharing information – and learn more about this issue.

West Virginia University students, faculty and staff should attend the health care policy reform Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Fukushima Auditorium of the Health Sciences Center Learning Center.

The event is hosted by WVU Young Democrats and is co-sponsored by the WVU Student Government Association.

It is free and open to the public.

To present diverse opinions from multiples viewpoints, speakers will represent multiple political angles from various academic fields of study.

The speakers will include:
 

6 comments

Strat Douglas

Tue Oct 20 2009 12:23

The bios for Chris Plein and Stratford Douglas are switched. Plein is Eberly Professor, etc; Douglas is Associate Prof of Economics.

Whatever

Mon Oct 19 2009 23:08

You have to appreciate the fact that "Your name" posts a response to my statement regarding the co-sponsorship of the YDs and the DA of this event, just shortly before the current President of the YDs co-writes a column regarding health care reform.

Surprise, surprise, the YD Prez is for it. Oh, and no...there are no medical doctors at this "forum". However there are a lot of social engineers who are looking re-make this country street by street, brick by brick, and callused hand by callused hand.

Your name

Mon Oct 19 2009 19:56

The College Republicans had the option to also co-sponser. It fell through. And this is not a debate. It's a forum. The speakers are professors, and or work in the medical field in some capacity. Like this article says, there is no agenda. And it should be good for people to attend and make up their own minds. That's just my thoughts on it.

Whatever

Mon Oct 19 2009 14:49

Normally when the Daily Athenaeum promotes an event sponsored by the Young Democrats I smell a rat, or in this case a Donkey.
I'm sure this event will be spintastic.

Dave

Mon Oct 19 2009 08:56

Will the time be structured so that people on both sides of the debate have the opportunity to ask questions? Perhaps it would be helpful to get the College Republicans involved as well to get true bipartisan cooperation in this informative event.

Scott E.

Mon Oct 19 2009 05:37

Are any of the panelists medical doctors?

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