Former U.S. Senator David Durenberger speaks on “Health Care and Policy Challenges and Change

Former U.S. Senator David Durenberger speaks on “Health Care and Policy Challenges and Changes” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 27 at the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater at Saint John’s University, Collegeville.

His speech is free and open to the public, and is part of the Dr. Martin and Rose Marie Schirber Lecture Series in Medical Ethics at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University – an annual event to provide information about health and medical issues.

Durenberger, who also plans to speak to several CSB/SJU classes Wednesday, March 28, is a 1955 graduate of Saint John’s. He represented Minnesota in the Senate from 1978-95.

Durenberger currently serves as Senior Health Policy Fellow at the University of St. Thomas. He founded and chairs the National Institute of Health Policy.

The NIHP is a not-for-profit membership organization comprised of health care, health plan and business leaders throughout the Upper Midwest. Its goal is to change the health care system from the inside out, and influence national policy health change.

While in the Senate, Durenberger served 16 years as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, plus six years as Health Subcommittee chair. He served eight years on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Durenberger is a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission; the Kaiser Foundation Commission on the Future of Medicaid and the Uninsured; the National Committee on Quality Assurance; and the National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care. He is also the advisory board chair of the Medical Technology Leadership Forum.

In 2003, Durenberger was named by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to lead the Minnesota Citizens Forum on Health Care Costs. Durenberger is also the author of “Prescription for Change” and “Neither Madman Nor Messiahs: A Policy of National Security for America.”

Martin Schirber, a 1942 graduate of Saint John’s, served on the school’s board of directors and was a long-time physician in Grand Rapids, Minn. The lecture series was established in the early 1980s to help pre-medicine students at CSB and SJU examine everyday ethical issues.