Wednesday, December 10

8:30 am - 7:00 pm

Atlanta BC

Health Policy Preconference: Health Reform and Women's Health in the States

This seminar will educate key state legislators and legislative staff about issues related to health reform and women's health.  The agenda will include presentations from national and state experts about a high performance health care system that includes: high quality of care; good access to care; better health system capacity; increased efficiency; chronic disease management and prevention; good use of health information technology and other issues important to reforming the health care system.  The agenda will allow plenty of time for discussion and provide an opportunity for legislators and legislative staff to meet with their colleagues from other states. 

Health Reform

State legislatures across the county are addressing important policy issues to reform the health care system that includes improving access, quality, efficiency and equity of care.  Health spending in the United States is significantly higher than the average rate in other institutionalized countries but the quality of care delivered is highly varied and the system delivering the care leaves millions without affordable coverage. 

Women's Health:  Focus on Chronic Diseases

Almost half of all American women live with at least one chronic condition.  Chronic diseases account for 70 percent of all deaths in the United States and the medical care costs of people with chronic diseases account for more than 75 percent of the nation’s medical care costs.  Although chronic diseases are among the most common and costly of women's health problems, they are also among the most preventable.  Visit NCSL's Women's Health Across the Lifespan Project for more information.

Advance registration is required to attend this preconference. Contact Katie Ziegler, (303) 364-7700 for more information.

Thursday, December 11

7:30 am - 1:30 pm

Atlanta BC

Health Policy Preconference: Health Reform and Women's Health in the States

(Continued)

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

International H

Women's Legislative Network Board Meeting

All are welcome to attend.

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Peachtree CD

Opening General Session: The 2008 Elections and the Future of Southern Politics

At the same time that the Democratic presidential candidate won victories in three Southern states with a history of voting Republican in presidential elections, Republicans captured the Tennessee House that had been in Democratic hands since Reconstruction, and decisively won the previously-tied Senates in Tennessee and Oklahoma. What do these mixed signals mean about the direction of Southern politics?

Professor Black specializes in the politics of the modern South, and has tracked the rise of the Republican Party in the South, the changing Southern electorate, and their significance for national politics.

• Speaker: Merle Black, Asa G. Candler Professor of Politics and Government, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Friday, December 12

8:00 am - 9:30 am

Peachtree CD

General Session Breakfast

Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm 

Vinings I

Women's Legislative Network Luncheon: Promoting Adolescent Well-Visits 
(Cosponsored by the Network and the NCSL Human Services and Welfare Committee)

Well-visits during adolescence are important to obtain preventive services such as vaccines and for education about the health effects of risky behaviors. Discuss the policymaker's role in ensuring teens see physicians regularly and the influence these and other caring adults can have on youth well-being.

Speakers:

• Richard Kreipe, Society for Adolescent Medicine, Georgia
• Kari Sapsis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia

NCSL gratefully acknowledges the support of GlaxoSmithKline.

Saturday, December 13

9:00 am - 11:30 am

Peachtree CD

General Session and Business Meeting

The order for the morning will be as follows:

Breakfast
Presentation by David Wyss, Chief Economist, Standard & Poor's
NCSL Business Meeting
Town Hall Meeting with T. Boone Pickens, CEO, BT Capital

Mr. Wyss will discuss how a crisis in U.S. home mortgages has expanded into an international economic crisis and where we may be going from here.

Mr. Pickens, a life-long oilman, has launched a campaign to build a network of renewable energy, intended “to break the country’s addiction to foreign oil.” Mr. Pickens will talk about how governments at all levels can move the U.S. toward cleaner, cheaper and domestic sources of energy.

12:30 pm - 8:30 pm

International E 

Women's Legislative Network Financial Stability Postconference

The Women's Legislative Network of NCSL is committed to promoting the participation, empowerment and leadership of women legislators in the area of women's financial stability.  Given today's difficult economic climate, in which women are 40 percent more likely to be poor than men, it is more important than ever for American women to be empowered with the confidence and competence to make smart financial decisions for themselves and their families.  The Network's Financial Stability Project seeks to increase state legislators' understanding of the economic status of American women and to provide information and tools for legislators working to make a difference in their communities. 

Session topics will include an in-depth look at the financial status of American women, financial education, women's readiness for retirement, and outreach to underbanked populations.  A key component of the seminar will be discussions about the contributions that state legislators can make to improve the financial status of women.  

Sunday, December 14   

8:30 am - 12:00 pm 

International E

Women's Legislative Network Financial Stability Postconference

(Continued)