David Nexon, Senior Executive Vice President, Advanced Medical Technology Association
Biography provided by participant
David Nexon is Senior Executive Vice President of the Advanced Medical Technology Association ("AdvaMed"), where he is responsible for domestic policy. Prior to joining AdvaMed, Nexon served for more than twenty years as the Democratic Health Policy Staff Director for the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and as the Senior Health Policy Advisor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In these capacities, he has been involved with most of the major health policy issues of the last two decades. Prior to joining Senator Kennedy's staff, Nexon was Senior Budget Examiner in the Health Branch of the Office of Management and Budget, where he was responsible for the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Nexon held several academic appointments prior to entering government service. He received his BA from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Two comments. First, it is a mistake to confuse the moral imperative of universal coverage with the need to bend the cost curve. The uninsured did not create the cost problem; providing them the coverage they deserve will cause a small, one-time bump in health spending, not a fundamental change in the underlying velocity of cost increases. Universal coverage would increase national health spending by about 3%--less than one year's inflation. The impact on Federal health spending would be greater, but still equivalent to only about a 10% increase in expenditures. On the issue of bending the cost curve, Director… Read more
In legislation as in life, it makes sense to strike while the iron is hot. The health reform iron is hot right now. It would be a mistake to let it cool.… Read more
Requiring that health reform be fully paid for as a condition of passage is like taking a novice swimmer, fastening a ball and chain to his foot, telling him to set a world record, and throwing him into the swimming pool. We’ve been trying to pass universal coverage for almost a century, and we haven’t been able to get the politics right. Getting agreement on what the reform should look like is hard enough without creating a whole new set of interest group opponents who face program cuts or increased taxes to pay for it. The real cost issue is… Read more
Biography provided by participant
