Keynote Address: "Progress Imperiled?: The Health Care Law, Its Implementation, & Constitutional Challenges"

Roughly a year after the passage of landmark health care reform legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), its future is in question. To date, district court decisions from four federal judges have split on the question of the constitutionality of the law’s mandatory individual coverage provisions. What are the merits on either side of the debate on the law’s constitutionality? What is the status of the litigation? What are the jurisprudential stakes for the federal government’s power to address pressing national problems? What are the implications for other pieces of federal legislation? In the face of this litigation, how is the law’s implementation going? What, if any, effect does the uncertainty have on business and the lives of American citizens? Experts from a variety of different perspectives discussed these and other questions at an ACS event on Thursday, March 3, 2011. The event featured a noon keynote address by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Thomas A. Daschle, Senior Policy Advisor at DLA Piper and author of the recently published book, Getting It Done, an intimate look at the passage of the health care reform legislation being debated today. A panel discussion was held from 12:30—2 pm and featured:

• Moderator, Julie Rovner, Health Policy Correspondent, National Public Radio
• Walter Dellinger, Chair of the Appellate Practice, O’Melveny & Myers LLP; former Assistant U.S. Attorney General
• Simon Lazarus, Public Policy Counsel, National Senior Citizens Law Center; author of The Health Care Lawsuits: Unraveling A Century of Constitutional Law and the Fabric of Modern Government
• Ilya Somin, Associate Professor, George Mason University School of Law
• Neera Tanden, Operating Officer, Center for American Progress; former Senior Advisor for Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services