Scholars have often commented that health policymaking in Congress is mired in political gridlock, that reforms are far more likely to fail than to succeed, and the path forward is unclear. To reach such conclusions, scholars of health politics have tended to analyze individual major reform proposals to determine why they succeeded or failed and what lessons could be drawn for the future. 

The Obama administration has made a major investment in comparative effectiveness research (CER) to learn what treatments work best for which patients. CER has the potential to reduce wasteful medical spending and improve patient outcomes, but the political sustainability of this initiative remains unclear due to concerns that it will threaten the doctor-patient relationship. 

Join us for a discussion on health care with Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and Michael Williams, UVA Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the UVA Center for Health Policy. Lunch will be provided.

An important barrier to formulating effective policies to address the rapid rise in U.S. fatal overdoses is that the specific drugs involved are frequently not identified on death certificates. This analysis supplies improved estimates of state opioid and heroin involved drug fatality rates in 2014, and changes from 2008 to 2014.

Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. 

Richard J. Bonnie is a professor of public policy at the Batten School and Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. ­­He teaches and writes about health law and policy, bioethics, criminal law, and public policies relating to mental health, substance abuse and public health.

Rick Campanelli is a lecturer at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Campanelli has an extensive career in public service and the private sector as well as experience in senior leadership and management. Campanelli has been legal counsel in the areas of healthcare, information privacy and security, and civil and First Amendment rights. He is the Center for Christian Study Director of Graduate Ministries for the Law and Darden Christian Fellowships.

Pamela Cipriano is a professor of nursing and public policy at the Batten School. Cipriano served as dean of the UVA School of Nursing and the Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing through July 2022. Cipriano’s more than 40-year career in nursing is marked by a focus on improving the safety and efficiency of care by ensuring a healthy, safe, and supportive work environment and encouraging healthy behaviors to promote well-being.

Margaret Foster Riley is a professor of law and public policy at the Batten School, a professor of law at UVA's School of Law and has a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Riley has written and presented extensively about biomedical research, genetics, reproductive technologies, stem cell research, animal biotechnology, health disparities and chronic disease. She serves as chair of UVA’s Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee and as legal advisor to the Health Sciences Institutional Review Board, which is responsible for reviewing all human subject research at UVA involving medically invasive procedures.