The headlined quote is from DFL Sixth District Congressional candidate Dr. Maureen Reed. It seems true, with little if any cause to disagree that the process is long term, just as the inadequacies of the status quo built up long term. The time perspective for a full ongoing reform of healthcare coverage and transitioning into a nearly final situation subject to ongoing monitoring and change with time, raises good cause to take a very serious look at both DFL congressional candidates. Clark lacks the experience in health care provision and cost containment that practicing medicine along with administrative service in healthcare have given Reed.
Hence, I believe Reed's lifetime experiences make her better qualified of the two very well qualified DFL candidates, on healh issues.
At the Ramsey Ward 1 Precinct 1 caucus this week both candidates had campaign affiliates present, to meet and discuss things with citizens attending caucus. I was quite impressed by the gentleman who reported about Reed, highlighting things about her experiences in higher education policy, an area where I believe Minnesota must carefully continue to fund for excellence in postgraduate training and cutting edge research.
There would be no Medtronic in the area economy without that having been a past statewide goal, and it simply must continue.
Rather than rehashing detail from memory, the Reed Wikipedia page is definitive:
During her tenure as vice president and medical director at HealthPartners (1993-2004), Reed's achievements included the creation and implementation of a ground-breaking outcomes-based payment approach (Outcomes Recognition Program) for primary care groups, specialty care groups and hospitals. She also led the team whose measurement efforts subsequently spawned the Minnesota Community Measurement, and that same team converted HealthPartners from a paper to an electronic medical management system.
While serving on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, Reed was the vice chair of the audit committee (1997), vice chair of the Education Planning and Policy Committee (1997-1999), chair of the Education Planning and Policy Committee (2003-2005), and board vice chair (1999-2001) prior to serving as board chair (2001-2003).
I am unsure of what "Minnesota Community Measurement" is and a definitive clause in the Wikipedia reporting would help. If any reader has helpful knowledge, please email detail. Cutting over from paper records to a database as was done under Reed's leadership at Health Partners is an internal cost and quality control measure, and one allowing less costly information exchange between providers, regulators, and coverage market segments. At the national level many have noted a need for better integration of such services even toward patient record keeping in some universal fashion, so that such a background would be helpful for any member of the House or Senate to have in contemplating reasonableness and thoroughness of proposed bills or administrative regulations which bills might alter.
But the key paragraph quoted above, to me, is the second, where Regent policy and planning is key to understanding the needs of maintaining faculty excellence and to knowing why opposing ebb-and-flow of funding is needed to keep coherent excellence built over time, but easily lost quickly, consequent to funding cuts.
I am not in any manner faulting Sen. Tarryl Clark, but her career experiences differ and clearly in some aspects such as past legislative service she has an advantage over Reed. Yet the focus for this post is healthcare and higher education excellence.
Reed is an attractive candidate in large part because her skills and experience track the two issues, healthcare reform, and higher education as a means to assure a highly skilled regional workforce into the future. An experienced background is very important to avoiding pitfalls, and instead reaching proper future policy and implementation decisions.
Such decision making has to be fully cognizant of all ways and means that promote the prosperity of all Minnesotans arising from a skilled professional workforce. And Reed, from work in the university system, understands that learning carries intrinsic value aside from its economic dimensions and aspects.
However, Clark has had ties to SCSU that also likely make her aware of the inherent positive non-economic value of learning.
In closing, the actual source of the opening headline is the Reed campaign website, a policy and issues subpage, at this link.
[The original post was written hastily and has been edited. All readers should check the Reed website page on health policy.]
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Opening photo from Minnesota Independent, this link.
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A Reed staff person was kind enough to email this link explaining detail about the Minnesota Community Measurement, at their website.
That link, plus this link to a WSJ article, are worth looking at, and the program can be explored via its other web pages. Does it encompass all Minnesota health providers? I toggled over to this link, for their related clinic comparison service, Minnesota Health Scores, with this link giving a listing of all clinics "scored" on the site.