WPC held its 4th Annual Health Care Conference, "Moving Health Care Forward: Tools and Techniques for a Healthier Washington," last Tuesday and featured keynote speaker Nina Owcharenko of the Heritage Foundation. The Conference was attended by over 250 people including business owners, legislators, agency and legislative staff, patients, doctors, and industry representatives. Debates on long-standing and newer health care issues invoked frustrations and an eagerness for action among attendees and participants. Some fundamental issues brought up included reforming Medicaid, promoting consumer driven health care like HSAs, deregulating the health insurance market, examining parts of Massachusetts' Health Plan, promoting patient focused care, and consumer access to health care cost and quality information.

The Conference also introduced two new WPC publications including a revised version of "The Pocket Guide to Health Savings Accounts," and a Policy Note "What Washington Can Learn from Massachusetts Health Care Reform." The Policy Note is available online.

Watch the full health care conference on tvw.org here.