By Dick Arnould with Reflections on the First ASHEcon Conference from John Mullahy
The beginning of ASHEcon: I am very thrilled to see the success of the early organization but even more excited about the organization it has become. All this success results directly from the support and participation of the health economists who became members.
I was in Paris at a European Health Economics Association conference after I had retired from the University of Illinois. I had been thinking that we have an international association and there are numerous country specific associations, why not a U.S. health economics association. Not wanting to detract from the then very successful IHEA, I planned to talk to Tom Getzen, IHEA’s Executive Director, about starting a U.S. health economics organization. Tom was not at the meeting, so I had coffee with Bill Swan, Tom’s associate. At that coffee, to my surprise Bill indicated that Tom also was interested in having a U.S. organization and was looking for someone to organize it. Having just retired from the U of I, I agreed to take this position and became the initial executive director. From there we were off and running.
The organization of ASHEcon
ASHEcon initially operated under the 501c3 of IHEA. A financial arrangement was made with IHEA to handle the management of operating the organization as well as the conferences.
I insisted that ASHEcon have a board separate from that of IHEA because I wanted ASHEcon to be a ‘members’ organization, not mine. I think these two requirements had a lot to do with the success of ASHEcon.
The second action that led to our success was the quality of the individuals willing to serve on that initial board (and all of those since). The presidents were among the leading names in the fields of Health Economics as were many of the board members. Everyone provided input into the birth and growth of the organization.
The third action was to limit our activities those first few years. Our main function was to hold a national conference every two years—the off years of the IHEA conferences. It took at least two years to get to the point of holding the first conference that was held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. The conference was a great success because of the participation of health economists and the quality of the venue. One added attraction was that during a social event on the outdoor balcony of the student union building, a tornado siren went off so all participants were required to go the basement of the building. Many non-Midwesterners had not been through such an event so there were many very mixed reactions.
The initial awards given were the student paper award and the ASHEcon Medal award. An interesting story behind the ASHEcon Medal award was the choice of the outstanding economist age 40 and below. The reason 40 and below was chosen rather than just below 40 is because a number of very prominent candidates for the award were turning 40 the year of the first award.
Interesting tidbits
When the organization was formed, I heard comments from two very prominent economists in the field that they saw no need for another ‘organization.’ Both soon saw the success of ASHEcon and became very active members and ultimately each served terms as President.
Separation from IHEA-
There was an early decision that ASHEcon should not remain under the IHEA organization. Largely due to the financial arrangement, it was not possible to make that split until after the 4th conference held at the University of Minnesota. A combination of actions made that possible: first, several members of ASHEcon felt there was much value in keeping the organization alive as an independent organization and donated funds to eliminate the amount owed to IHEA; second, the Minnesota conference was a great success financially as well as scientifically. Adequate funds were generated from these two sources
to pay off obligations to IHEA and form the independent ASHEcon 501c3 and operate as an independent organization as it does today. That was a very welcome victory for ASHEcon.
John Mullahy on the first ASHEcon conference
I was asked if Madison would be willing to do this thing that IHEA was willing to bankroll, a U.S. analogue to IHEA’s various national associations. I talked to a whole lot of people—Bobbi Wolfe, Dave van Ness early on. With the resources we have available, we could probably try to put together some sort of conference, we’ll announce it through the usual channels and see what happens. We had no idea if 50 people would turn up or 200. Turns out 500-600 people showed up, which is way more than we ever expected. Ok maybe now we should turn this into something. Originally, we were branding as ASHE, but we realized pretty quickly there was an existing ASHE (American Society of Hispanic Economists) and we didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, so we switched to ASHEcon.
There was never a sense that this was a guarantee. If Madison had failed, we probably would’ve gotten to some professional organization/association but it would’ve taken a very different path is my speculation. I think it’s important to note that there was buy-in to the idea by really prominent and important people in the field, Joe Newhouse was the first President, that sends a pretty strong signal to the field that this thing has credibility if Joe’s name is attached to it. A lot of things broke in good directions to make it the ASHEcon it is today, but IHEA’s support in the early days was invaluable.