EVENTS FALL 2009

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
EUROPEAN HEALTHCARE POLICY AND POLITICS

8.30 AM - 4.00 PM
Rhodes Conference Room
Sanford School of Public Policy

Consponsored by the Duke Center for European Studies and the
UNC-Chapel Hill Center for European Studies

The Duke Center for European Studies welcomes you to join us for a conference on European Healthcare Policy and Politics on FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2009.  In collaboration with the UNC Center for European Studies, we invite all Duke and UNC faculty and students to attend for any or all speakers. 

As any observer of recent healthcare reform debates in the U.S. can attest, Europe has probably never gotten so much attention for its healthcare policy. Unfortunately, much of the public debate on this topic has been ill informed, based on caricature and divorced from the real strengths and real weaknesses of European healthcare.  While hardly free of problems, there are many lessons we can learn from how Europe organizes healthcare.  Moreover, the history and politics of European healthcare can teach us a great deal as well.  The conference aims to inform scholarly and public debate on healthcare politics and policy, as well as deepen our understanding of contemporary Europe.

            We have been fortunate to invite a multi-disciplinary set of academics who are actively involved in research on European healthcare.  Specifically, the schedule and guests will be:

8.45 am            David Brady, Duke Center for European Studies & Duke Sociology

                        Welcome and Introduction

9.00 am            Paul Dutton, Northern Arizona University, History
                        “Voices from the Past: Health Care Reform in France and the U.S. Debate”

                         Discussant:  David Brady David Brady

10.00 am         Julia Lynch , University of Pennsylvania, Political Science

                        “On Death and Taxes: The Politics of Regional Health Inequalities in Europe”

                        Discussant:  Sandra Chapman Osterkatz, Graduate Student, UNC Political Science

11.00 am          Coffee Break

11.15 am          Kieke Okma, New York University, Healthcare Management:
                        “Switzerland and Holland: The New European Models”

                         Discussant:  Don Taylor, UNC Public Policy

12.15 pm          Lunch

1.45 pm            Sigrun Olafsdottir, Boston University, Sociology

                        “Successful Health Care Systems? Variations in and Determinants of Public 

                          Attitudes in 33  Nations”

                          Discussant:  Rebekah Burroway, Graduate Student, Duke Sociology

2.45 pm            Coffee Break

3.00 pm            Mauricio Avendano , Harvard University, Public Health
                        “Wealth and Health in Europe and the United States: Are Wealthy Americans

                         Healthier than Poor Europeans?”

                         Discussant:  Megan Reynolds, Graduate Student, Duke Sociology

Each guest will give a presentation of approximately 35 minutes, and will be followed by a commentary
of a local discussant, and discussion.

Please join us on November 20 for a stimulating intellectual debate on European healthcare policy
and politics. If you will be able to attend, we would appreciate that you RSVP to Sharon Peters at sharon.peters@duke.edu by noon on Monday November 16. This will allow us to order sufficient
food for the lunch. Of course, we would be happy to have you in attendance for any part of the event.
Feel free to just show up for whatever you can.