Hoag Memorial CEO Richard Afable and UCI Merage School Biz Dean Andy Policano were polite but emphatic: Last year’s historic reform bill is not the prescription for improving healthcare. “It won’t work,” Afable told a packed ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. Policano, an economist, said the problem is simple math: The Affordable Care Act—neither man referred to it as “Obamacare”—will reduce government reimbursements while mandating coverage for another 30 million people. “After it fails,” Afable said, “either one of two options will take over: market-based reform through innovation and entrepreneurism or a single-payer system. There are no other options. I hope desperately the former happens …
OC can be a leader in a market-based reform movement.” Many concerned employers were at the healthcare summit. Hoag initially expected 200 attendees but had to cut off registration at 500 …
As for the broader economy, will there be a double dip? “Who cares?” said Policano. “It doesn’t matter. We’re headed for a period of slow growth” … There was another packed house, this one of nearly 600 at the Hilton Irvine/OC Airport, for Jerry Brown. “I don’t know why, but I enjoy it,” Brown said of his second time around as governor. “Thanks for giving me another chance at it. I won’t let you down” …
The Girl Scouts honor a Who’s Who of OC leaders at an Oct. 27 dinner in the Island Hotel: In alphabetical order (the only way the Insider dares to do this) they are Sally Anderson, Kathy Bronstein, Lee Ann Canaday, Martha Daniel, Artyn Gardner, Cynthia Nishimoto, Nella Webster O’Grady, Anoosheh Oskouian, Judy Rosener, Loretta Sanchez, Julie Sokol and Elizabeth Stahr. And yes, they’re all Scouts …
Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Myron Steele returns for another dinner with the Forum for Corporate Directors Oct. 25 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine …
Longtime NBC4 reporter Vikki Vargas has been busy in OC lately. She recently received Orangewood Children’s Foundation’s 2011 Philanthropy Award. Then Vargas was the first journalist on the scene at the arrest of the suspect in the shooting that left eight dead in Seal Beach last week …
Newlyweds: Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s Wing Lam and Kelly Patricia Lam (formerly Paul) of Om My Soul Yoga, Newport Beach … One of the “Irvine 11” college students who shouted down Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at UCI last year says the group rejected a plea deal from Orange County DA Tony Rackaukas. Biotechnology grad Aslam Akhtar said Rackaukus told them that if they pleaded guilty they would “do a couple of hours of community service” and then have their records expunged. But, “We felt we did something that was not only permissible but praiseworthy. Standing up for what we believe in is the heart of American tradition,” Akhtar said on “Inside OC.” The students recently lost their jury trial, were sentenced by Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson to community service, and are now appealing the verdicts.
