Daniel Derksen, MD
When
The Future of Your Healthcare: Will the Midterm Elections Transform Our Health System?
Daniel Dirksen, MD
Associate Vice President for Health Equity, Outreach and Interprofessional Activities, UA Health Sciences
Walter H. Pearce Endowed Chair & Director, UA Center for Rural Health
Professor of Public Health, Public Health Policy and Management Program, the University of Arizona
About the Lecture
Dan Derksen, MD, a national expert on health policy, will discuss the critical state of U.S. Healthcare systems governing all aspects of healthcare, including health insurance, prescription benefits, access, costs, and health outcomes at the national and state levels. He will highlight how the upcoming elections could dramatically impact the U.S. health-care systems — including Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance, prescrip- tion benefits, access to health care, costs, payment, health outcomes and the health-care economy.
Among Medicare beneficiaries, the most common chronic conditions include arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease, and diabetes. Many have two or more chronic conditions. The costs of chronic conditions have far-reaching implications for the health-care system. Although Congress failed to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act in 2017, health law has been significantly altered over the past two years, with more changes expected related to the midterm election results.
About Dr. Daniel Dirksen, MD
Recently appointed associate vice president for health equity, out- reach and interprofessional activi- ties at the UA Health Sciences, Dr. Derksen also is the Walter H. Pearce Endowed Chair and professor of public health policy and manage- ment in the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health, with a joint appointment as professor in the UA College of Medicine – Tucson Department of Family and Commu- nity Medicine. As director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health, Dr. Derksen’s current service, research and education activities include informing legislative, regulatory and program policy to improve health equity; increasing health insurance coverage; reducing the uninsured; narrowing health disparities; devel- oping, implementing and evaluating interprofessional serving/learning sites; and working to assure a well-trained and distributed health workforce to meet the health needs of all Arizonans.