Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich opened today’s forum at the Brookings Institution on the economic value of innovation in medicine. The republican, who founded the Center for Health Transformation, recently championed for changes to Medicare that would allow seniors to voluntarily choose “a more personal system with greater options for better care,” according to a message on Gingrich’s Facebook page.
The conference brought together representatives from the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies and patient advocacy organizations to discuss how the federal health care law enacted last year is affecting the costs of health care, as well as its impact on biomedical research.
Brookings Institution’s Health Reform Center Director Dr. Mark McClellan, who also served as head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, moderated several panel discussions throughout the day. Former Obama Administration White House Budget Director Peter Orszag provided the closing address.
The event was co-hosted by the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings Institution and the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California.