Today and Wednesday, Mississippi State University will be hosting the 24th annual MSU Insurance Day. As part of the seminar, the risk management, insurance and financial planning department is hosting Michael Leavitt, former secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Wednesday for the seminar’s keynote.
Leavitt will also speak at a public presentation in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium. He will be addressing the topic of health care reform.
Lindsay Welch, representative of the risk management, insurance and financial planning program, said the keynote speaker is usually a well-known person or someone who can speak on a topic people can recognize. The department has recently brought in people such as Mike Huckabee and Karl Rove.
“We know that health care reform is such a big topic, and it affects the entire country,” she said. “There’s legislation that people don’t understand, and there’s so many parts to this, so we really wanted to focus this year’s seminar on health care reform.”
Welch said Leavitt was a good candidate for this because he served in the presidential cabinet under George W. Bush.
“Even though a lot of college students don’t really think about their health care and their need in the future, this is a pressing issue,” she said. “I really hope it will be an eye-opening presentation for our MSU family.”
Welch said the conference brings over 600 people to campus and is one of the largest events of its kind, especially in the South.
These range in industry professionals from claims, underwriting, agents and producers from all over the United States, including the first registrant from Arizona.
“Of the 600 or so that we have come, about half them use it to get their [continuing education] hours, and the other half just really enjoy our program,” she said.
Welch said the program also offers continuing legal education hours for lawyers.
She said seminars have topics covering ethics, legal issues and general insurance topics for these professionals to earn their continuing education hours. There are a wide variety of speakers who will travel to Starkville for this event.