National Health Policy Conference 2009!!!!

This Monday and Tuesday I will be attending the National Health Policy Conference, here in downtown Washington, D.C. It is really exciting for me because the scheduled sessions look really great. It will also be the first official function were I will be going as a GAO employee. There are a few other people from GAO going (GAO has a lot of great opportunities to attend conferences and other professional education events) and I am really looking forward to seeing how it goes. There are a lot of people scheduled to be at the conference that will be playing a critical role in any upcoming health care reform and so it will be neat to see how it unfolds.

I am also excited that it will be one of the first places that I will be handing out my business cards. It is nice that at GAO I have the flexibility to be away from the office for a couple days and still have it considered work.  I am probably most excited about Jeanne Labrew, the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, being there. She co-authored Critical recently with Tom Daschle and will be playing a very key role in health reform. It will be interesting to hear her take on when the process is likely to start. Also, Senator Max Baucus and Representative Pete Stark, who both chair crucially important committees on health, will be present. While there have been differing signals on how quickly health reform will move, it will be exciting to watch it unfold, and to play a role, even a minor one, in that reform.