Restless and in desperate need of adventure I quit my job at an insurance company to travel west with a couple of guys I smoked pot with scandalizing my family.
My early work and publications centered around expanding on the analysis of life insurance in my dissertation and its relationship to investment banking.
And I have to say what motivates me every day and I know my Democratic colleagues is to remember that every day 14 000 people get up in the morning with insurance that go to bed at night without it and most of them because they lost their job.
In 1963 and later papers I pointed out that the special market characteristics of medical care and medical insurance could be explained by reference to differences in information among the parties involved.
I was proud to share the stories of my friends at Georgetown Law who have suffered dire medical consequences because our student insurance does not cover contraception for the purpose of preventing pregnancy.
I would like to promote the concept of a partnership of insurance companies physicians and hospitals in deploying a basic framework for an electronic medical records system that is affordable.
No one wants to go back to a situation where if you have a pre-existing medical condition you you can be deprived of coverage. No one wants to go back to a situation where if you get seriously ill you can get thrown off your insurance. Seniors don't want to go back to paying more for their prescription drugs.
Today all patients accepted for treatment at St. Jude's are treated without regard for the family's ability to pay. Everything beyond what is covered by insurance is taken care of and for those without insurance all of the medical costs are absorbed by the hospital.
Five thousand people every day lose their home because of a medical bankruptcy. Most of them had insurance.
We also have to make sure our children know the history of women. Tell them the rotten truth: It wasn't always possible for women to become doctors or managers or insurance people. Let them be armed with a true picture of the way we want it to be.