Good morning and thank you for coming. Welcome to this session which is a joint session of the Brookings Institution and the Rockefeller Institute of government. Were going to talk about the results of a fivestate study on how competition is working in the Affordable Care act marketplaces and what we might learn from this study and how we think about competition in the marketplaces Going Forward. And to officially open us up, i welcome my colleague, richard nathan, from the Rockefeller Institute, to the platform. Thank you, alice. I dont work at brookings so maybe i shouldnt welcome people, but i worked here 11 years. It is a while ago. And this is one of my Favorite Places to it be able to work with colleagues. It is a pleasure today to welcome you to this conference, as alice said. The brookings and rock fefeller Institute Field Network Study of the competitive she mentioned this competitiveness of marketplaces in Health Insurance, individual, Nongroup Health Insurance marketplaces i
Roughly 1,000 more than we reported yesterday. The number of deaths rising from 67 to 88. President trump who has been downplaying the pandemic for weeks changed his tone. He offered a much, much different message in the face of these new numbers. You look at whats happening in other countries. Italy is having a very hard time, but i think that what we do ive spoken with my son. He says, how bad is this . Its bad. Its bad. But were going to were going to be hopefully a best case, not a worst case. Thats what were working for. Together, hopefully, to try and avoid a worst case scenario, President Trump recommended pretty serious guidelines. That the country essentially go into lockdown mode. A new set of white house guidelines says, number one, anyone who is sick should stay home. And if anyone tests pos tifrks everyone in their household should also stay home. Everyone should work or take classes from home whenever possible. And avoid being in any group larger than 10 people. Avoid dis
A National Emergency. The first healthrelated emergency since 2009. The declaration is coming as the death toll in the u. S. Stands at 41. The number of confirmed or presumptive cases around the country has surpassed 1600. In a spush uburb of new york cie governor announced starting today there will be drive through testing for the virus. A number of state legislatures are suspended. Others have already finished their sessions. Canadas parliament is suspended after the prooipss wife tested positive. The Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quarantined. Many pro sports are delayed or cancelled. Ncaa march madness is cancelled. No division one mens or womens tournaments. Public schools are closing in maryland, michigan, new mexico, oregon, washington d. C. , l. A. , and san diego. The disney and universal theme parks in florida and california are closing. Universal is a corporate cousin of msnbc, and the Mormon Church is cancelling churches worldwide. The bicentennial of the churchs founding
Instead, is it the symbol of a country that is shutting down. Earlier, the president announced new sweeping guidelines urging the public to effectively hunker down. Public Health Officials now want everyone in the country, even healthy individuals, to avoid gatherings of more than ten people to avoid any unnecessary travel, and to avoid eating at bars and restaurants altogether. There is growing concern that the u. S. Hospital system is going to be overwhelmed unless we all act with a sense of collective urgency not seen since world war ii. And public Health Officials are warning that these measures will not be effective unless everyone follows them. The guidelines, when you look at them carefully, i believe if the people in the United States take them seriously, because they were based on some rather serious consideration back and forth, some may look at them and say, theyre going to be really inconvenient for people. Some will look and say, well, maybe weve gone a little bit too far.
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