EVENT MATERIALS
Please join us for lunch on May 22nd from 12-1pm for our upcoming Congressional Health Policy Education Program event in CVC 217. Chick-fil-A lunch will be provided. Please feel free to share this invite with any health care staffer you think would be interested.
This event will be the first in a series on drug pricing and will focus on demand side issues. Paragon will host a future session on supply side questions. The event will be hosted by Theo Merkel, who will be joined once again by John Brooks.
Theo Merkel is the Director of the Private Health Reform Initiative and a Senior Research Fellow for the Paragon Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Previously, Theo served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council in the White House (2019-2020). In addition to his work in the executive branch, Theo worked for his home state Senator Pat Toomey for a decade, most recently as Legislative Director. During his time in the White House, Theo had a wide-ranging portfolio that included Medicare, Medicaid, the commercial market, and drug pricing reform.
John Brooks is a JD and MBA who most recently held multiple senior health executive positions overseeing the Administration’s health portfolio, including Senior Advisor for Drug Pricing to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Counselor to the Secretary for Health Policy, and health policy advisor at the White House Domestic Policy Council. Brooks also provided transition planning to the new Administration and led the incoming Administration’s work with respect to CMS.
