News Release

Catherine McLaughlin named vice chair of U.S. working group on health care services, delivery, and costs.

February 28, 2005 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Catherine McLaughlin, University of Michigan School of Public Health professor of Health Management and Policy and director of the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured, was today named vice chair of the newly appointed national Citizens' Health Care Working Group.

The group was created by Congress to hold hearings and community meetings across the country on health care coverage and cost issues, to issue a "Health Report to the American People," and to submit recommendations to Congress and the President within two years. David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), chose the group's 14 members from among 530 who applied.

“We'll be studying not just Medicare but the entire health care system,” McLaughlin said. ”We're going to address ways to improve health care access and affordability for all Americans, and especially for the 45 million who are currently uninsured.”

The Citizens' Health Care Working Group includes health care consumers, providers, employers and workers, as well as McLaughlin, and chair Randall L. Johnson, director of Human Resources Strategic Initiatives for Motorola.

More details are available from the GAO press release: http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/citizenshealthpr0228.pdf

Contact: Terri Mellow, director of communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu

Catherine McLaughlin