Late Sunday evening we received a press release from NIC announcing that Paul Ryan would be the opening keynote speaker for the NIC Spring Conference that happens in San Diego February 20-22, 2019.

By Steve Moran

Late Sunday evening we received a press release from NIC announcing that Paul Ryan would be the opening keynote speaker for the NIC Spring Conference that happens in San Diego February 20-22, 2019.    

Hated By All

It is tough to figure out why they invited him except we are living in a kind of tribalistic time in the United States where the media and politicians mostly want us to hate “the other side”. Paul Ryan while Speaker of the House, in what seemed to be an effort to find some middle ground, managed to make at least the extremes on both sides hate him.   

Not Obvious

Given that background, he seems like a less than obvious choice for the opening keynote except that . . .

  • He was right in the mix of what the federal government was doing and thinking with respect to healthcare policy, immigration, and labor, which are critically important to senior living right now and will continue to be in the future.

  • He is crazy smart.

At the end of the day, hearing his thoughts will give leaders in the audience a better crystal ball as they figure out how to position senior living relative to healthcare policy and labor policy.

And More

He will deliver some opening remarks and then will participate in a “fireside chat” with John J. Kelliher, managing director, Berkeley Resource Group, and former chief counsel of the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives.  

This will be followed by a panel moderated by Kelliher that will look at Republican and Democratic perspectives. The panel will include Chris Jennings, who served at the White House in health policy under both President Obama and President Clinton, and Jennifer B. Young, who served as Assistant Secretary for Legislation at HHS as well as Senior Counselor to Secretary Mike Leavitt in the George H.W. Bush administration.

What to Expect

You can expect Paul Ryan to talk about entitlement and regulatory reform, the shift to private management of  Medicare and Medicaid recipients, labor, and immigration issues. The discussion will include a look at the impact of immigration and labor on unemployment and wages.

This should be a rocking, interesting 90 minutes and if we are lucky maybe we will even see some fireworks.  After the presentation, I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Not registered yet?  I hope you will, it would be awesome to see you there.