|
ABSTRACT
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, adopted by the United States Congress in March of this year, revolutionizes the nature of health insurance in the United States and is likely to make significant changes in health care delivery as well. While parts of the legislation have gone into effect or will become effective during the coming year, the most important provisions do not become effective until 2014. The federal departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor are working together to draft implementing regulations and guidance. But the primary responsibility for implementation rests with the governments of the 50 states. Their efforts at implementation are to an extent guided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a private organization composed of state regulations. As the states move ahead with implementation, 21 of the states are suing in federal court to have parts of the law declared unconstitutional and the United States is facing Congressional and state elections that seem likely to be dominated by politicians who oppose the reforms. All of this presents a fascinating legal and political landscape, which will be explored in this lecture.
BIOGRAPHY
Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, J.D., holds the Robert L. Willett Family Professorship of Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. He is a coauthor of a casebook, Health Law, used widely throughout the United States in teaching health law and now in its sixth edition. He is also the author of Health Care at Risk, A Critique of the Consumer-Driven Movement, Health Care Coverage Determinations: An International Comparative Study, Readings in Comparative Health Law and Bioethics, and numerous articles and book chapters on health care regulation and comparative health law and policy. He has written numerous monographs on legal issues in health care reform for national organizations, and in recent months has been interviewed by CNN, ABC News, Fox News, the New York Times, AP and other news media. He is a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
|
