Reply #1: Kip's credentials

[John Q. Citizen]

About the Author
Kip Sullivan has been teaching and writing about the American health-care crisis since 1986. His articles on this subject, which now number over 100, have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, the Washington Monthly, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Health Affairs.Mr. Sullivan is a graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Law School. With the exception of a three-year stint with the New York Legal Aid Society, he has spent his entire adult life working for citizen organizations. From 1980 to 2000, he was an organizer, researcher and lobbyist for Minnesota Citizen Organizations Acting Together (COACT), an organization that teaches citizens how to work together for social justice. In 1986, COACT endorsed universal health insurance and appointed Mr. Sullivan as the campaign director for that issue. This assignment required Mr. Sullivan to develop a thorough understanding of the health-care crisis - not just its obvious symptoms, but its origins and the various proposals to solve it - and to explain the crisis to the average person. Since 1986, Mr. Sullivan has explained the health-care crisis and the debate about it to thousands of people, including members of religious organizations, unions, farm groups, political organizations, and legislators.Mr. Sullivan's background makes him unique among those who write about health policy. Unlike most health-policy experts, he has had to explain health policy to everyday people as opposed to other health-policy experts or students interested in becoming health-policy experts. Unlike most health-policy experts, Mr. Sullivan has no financial connection to the health-care industry. He has been completely free to seek a solution to the health-care crisis that will benefit the average person as opposed to health insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other powerful interest groups that dominate the debate about how to solve the health-care mess.~~