Analysts Size Up State of Health Care Reform Nationally, in California

On Thursday, a roster of policy analysts joined KQED's "Health Dialogues" for a discussion of:

• The presidential candidates' health care proposals;
• Health care reform efforts in California, San Francisco and Santa Clara County; and
• Proposition 4, a measure on the Nov. 4 California ballot that would require parental notification in most cases before girls younger than age 18 could undergo an abortion.

Guests on the program included:

• E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and a health care adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.);
• John Graham, director of heath care studies at the Pacific Research Institute;
• Larry Levitt, a vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation and editor-in-chief of kaisernetwork.org;
• Dolores Meehan; a volunteer spokesperson for the campaign in favor of Proposition 4; and
• Marian Mulkey, senior program officer for the California HealthCare Foundation's Market and Public Policy Monitor Program (Shafer, "Health Dialogues," KQED, 10/23).

CHCF publishes California Healthline.