As I mentioned here before, politics, human rights, and public health are closely interwoven. And, knowing those who are most closely advising the candidates and who may well continue their roles with the next president helps me to better understand who I’m voting for and potential implications.
The information here is all public and published information and was compiled by a non-partisan health policy group. I’m going to focus here solely on the key health and foreign policy advisors of these candidates since both issues say much about how the future president may impact health and rights globally.
These are Barack Obama's closest health policy advisors:
David Cutler
- Economics professor and dean of social sciences at Harvard
- Member of the Institute of Medicine
- Has been a primary developer of Obama’s health plan
- Thinks that the primary goal of health care should be to improve quality, and feels that most healthcare spending is good.
- Author of "Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America’s Healthcare System"
Stuart Altman
- Healthcare economist and Dean of Brandeis University Social Policy and Management School.
- Worked on health care proposal for John Kerry and played a central role in the writing of Obama’s plan.
- Author of "A Cure for Spiraling Healthcare Costs"
Gregg Bloche
- Professor of law at Georgetown and adjunct professor at John Hopkins School of Public Health.
- Visiting fellow at the Harvard Program on Ethics and Health
- Consultant on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on human rights in the healthcare sector.
- Author of several books including "Consumer Directed Healthcare and the Disadvantaged"
Tom Daschle
- Former Senate majority leader.
- Consultant for a law firm advising on healthcare and other issue.
- A senior fellow at the Center for American Progress
- Co-Chair of ONE Vote ’08, which aims to address health and poverty in developing countries.
- Author of "Critical"
David Blumenthal
- Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy at Harvard
- Has worked on past presidential candidates’ healthcare proposals including Obama’s plan.
- A strong advocate of health information technology.
- Author of "Health Information Technology: What is the Federal Government’s Role?"
These are Barack Obama's closest foreign policy advisors:
Denis McDonough
- Senior fellow at the Center for American Progress
- A former foreign policy advisor to Tom Daschle, including work on HIV/AIDS, war on terror, and other topics.
- Author of "Balancing our Climate Debt: The Group of Eight have an Obligation"
Greg Craig
- Partner at a law firm who has represented several high profile clients including former U.N. secretary Kofi Anan.
- Advised Senator Edward Kennedy on defense and foreign policy in the 1980s and a former director of policy during the Clinton administration.
Susan Rice
- Was recently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
- A senior advisor on the Kerry campaign
- Author of "The Threat of Global Poverty"
Tony Lake
- Professor of diplomacy at Georgetown.
- National security advisor to President Clinton
Richard Danzig
- Bioweapons consultant to the Pentagon
- Former Secretary of the Navy from 1998 – 2001.
- Believes the overall US strategy should be to reduce the amount of armed conflict in the world.
- Author of "The Big Three: Our Greatest Security Risks and How to Address Them"
Dan Shapiro (Middle East policy advisor)
- Vice president of a lobbying and consulting firm
- Former legislative advisor
Dan Restrepo (Latin American policy advisor)
- Director of the Americas Project at the Center for American Progress
- Author of "The United States and Latin America: After ‘The Washington Consensus’"
Scott Gration (national security advisor)
- CEO of Millennium Villages, a project to assist African nations out of poverty based on the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals.
- Retired 2-star general in the Air Force.
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