Economist, professor of family medicine talks health care on September 30

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - On Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 4:30 p.m. in Middlebury College’s Twilight Auditorium, Dartmouth College economist and professor of family medicine Jonathan Skinner will deliver a lecture titled “What You Need to Know about Health Care Reform.” The event is free and open to the public, and Twilight Auditorium is located in Twilight Hall on College Street (Route 125).

Skinner is the John Sloan Dickey Third Century Chair of Economics at Dartmouth College and Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

His lecture will address several issues and questions regarding the current and ongoing health care reform debate. For instance, Skinner explores the following questions: How hard can it be to reform the United States health care system? Have other countries figured out a better way? Why do health care costs vary so much across regions? What’s needed to fix American health care? And why is doing something about health care cost growth critical?

The D.K. Smith Visiting Economic Lecture Series was established in 1988 by Middlebury College graduates Edward Schaefer of the class of 1956, Laura Schaefer Buckley of the class of 1979 and Edward Schaefer III of the class of 1984, and it is held each year in honor of David K. Smith, a member of the Middlebury College economics department from 1950-1988 and a 1942 graduate. While teaching at Middlebury, Smith created a course in environmental economics, and was for many years advisor to all environmental studies majors with an economics focus. A resident of the towns of Middlebury and Pittsford, he served for 23 years as a consultant for the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation, and as a member of the Vermont State Council of Economic Advisors for four Vermont governors. He also served on numerous state commissions advising on energy and tax issues. He was the author of textbooks on money, banking and accounting. He died in 2006.

For more information email Middlebury College Department of Economics Events Coordinator Janine Podraza or call 802-443-3198, or email the organizer of this talk and current holder of  the David K. Smith ‘42 Chair in Applied Economics, Phanindra V. Wunnava, or call 802-443-5024.