Academic

Upcoming Symposium: The Role of States in Federal Health Care Reform

By Jim Chen

I?m pleased to announce The Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy?s 2010 - 2011 Symposium, exploring ?The Role of States in Federal Health Reform.? The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, represents the most significant change to the United States? health care system in a generation. The law also expands, to an unprecedented degree, the role of the federal government in health care. States traditionally had primary authority for regulating health care providers and insurers, and protecting health care consumers. Now, under ACA, states? discretion to enact separate laws has been reduced, and their responsibility to implement federal law has been increased. That dynamic has generated a range of responses, including, most notably, several states? lawsuits challenging ACA as an unconstitutional exercise of federal power.