SU to host debate on health-care reform law in Washington

Syracuse University (SU) plans to host a debate on the federal health-care reform law at the end of March as part of a speaker series designed to build the university’s presence in Washington, D.C.

The debate is set for 7 p.m. on March 29 at the National Press Club. That is a day after the Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to finish hearing arguments on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the 2010 federal health-care reform law.

SU’s debate will cover whether the law is constitutional and whether it is good public policy. National Senior Citizens Law Center Policy Counsel Simon Lazarus will argue the law is constitutional, while Cato Institute board of directors Chairman Robert Levy will make the case that it is not.

Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of political economy and economic and public affairs at Princeton University, will contend the law is good policy. Michael Cannon, the director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, will assert that a reform law could have been developed through a bottom-up process.

Michael Lewan, principal of the international law firm Brown Rudnick LLP, will moderate the debate. Lewan graduated from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 1974.

“When the Supreme Court issues its decision on the Affordable Care Act, the impact will be felt across every corner of this nation,” Lewan said in a news release. “Accordingly, I can’t begin to express how important it is to have this public debate now.”

The debate is part of SU’s Greenberg Speaker Series, which aims to strengthen the university’s presence in Washington, D.C.

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