New Report to Highlight Need for Public Health Insurance Plan Outlined in Obama's...( Author Jacob Hacker Finds Public Plan...),Health

Author Jacob Hacker Finds Public Plan Vital to Controlling Costs, Improving Quality as Health Care Reform Debate Centers on Public Insurance Choice

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., and Liz Fowler, senior counsel to Sen. Max Baucus, will join health care expert and U.C. Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker and Institute for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday to release a new report that shows that a public insurance option is a critical element of President-elect Obama's health care reforms.

With the insurance industry opposing key elements of reform embraced by President-elect Obama, his health care point person Tom Daschle and Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, the new report shows that a public insurance option is crucial to controlling health care costs and achieving quality coverage.

NEWS TELECONFERENCE TO RELEASE A

NEW REPORT ON PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE

DATE:Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008

TIME:11 a.m. ET (8 a.m. PT)

CALL-IN: 866-316-1366, code 4839124

PARTICIPANTS:

Roger Hickey, co-dir., Institute for America's Future

Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., chair, House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee

Jacob Hacker, co-dir., U.C. Berkeley School of Law Center on Health, Economic and Family Security

Liz Fowler, sr. counsel, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and author of recent Baucus health white paper