National Health Reform Law and Policy Project
Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the National Health Reform Law and Policy Project developed by the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. This project is designed to provide accessible and understandable comparative analyses and summaries of the major pieces of health reform legislation in the 111th Congress. Through these materials, the goal is to advance public understanding of the legal and policy implications of health reform both during the legislative phase and as a matter of ongoing legislative and regulatory implementation. The unfolding process suggests health reforms that will not only move the nation toward universal health insurance but lay the groundwork for a comprehensive re-engineering of the health system to achieve greater quality, transparency, system efficiency, public health integration, and equity through reduction in disparities in health and health care.
Change will come over time. The legislative proposals themselves can be thought of as the critical opening act, broadly directive in structure. Many of the most important details will be addressed through the implementation process, as federal and state agencies begin the enormous task of implementing reform, and as consumers, patients, employers, medical and health professionals, health insurers, and the health care industry begin to embrace change.
The initial Congressional phase of this epic odyssey - one that has been virtually a century in the making when one considers the earliest efforts at national health reform - is expected to be completed during the 111th Congress. During this time, lawmakers will consider several major pieces of legislation introduced by members of both parties and can also be expected to weigh a large volume of proposed legislative amendments, many of which will carry decisive implications for the measures under consideration. Legislative language is dense and cryptic, and the process of legislative debate is extremely complex. Indeed, the text of legislation and the process by which that text is written and turned into law, can obscure the pivotal nature of the policy reforms that are being considered.
This project will continue throughout the legislative phase of national health reform and into the equally important implementation phase. It is designed to examine both the statutory framework of health reform, as well as the critical post-enactment phase, when the tasks of implementing law and social policy rise to the fore. As such, this project aims to translate the technical language of legislative proposals into an accessible assessment of the extent to which these proposals move the health care system toward the goals of universal coverage and health system reform.
In developing this comparative analysis of national health reform proposals, GW faculty and staff consulted with experts in health care policy and management to identify the key questions that should be asked. These key questions, discussed in greater detail in the taxonomy, guide the analysis of the proposals. In reviewing the proposals, the focus of the project swept broadly, exploring not only issues of coverage access, affordability, and quality, but also matters that relate to the provision of high quality and affordable health care for all Americans, including the nation's most vulnerable populations. Equally fundamental is the question of whether health reform, as conceptualized and designed, will have the potential to reduce or eliminate the significant disparities in access, quality and outcomes that characterize health care in 21st century America.
As legislative proposals are introduced, the analysis will be continuously updated. In addition, this site will contain links to ongoing research studies conducted by the faculty and staff of the Department of Health Policy that will be of interest to readers involved in national health reform.
Available Materials
At this site, readers will find an analysis of national health reform proposals, including the following materials:
- A user's guide to navigating project contents;
- A taxonomy that identifies the major themes guiding the comparative legislative analysis;
- Comparative legislative tables showing provisions in each analyzed proposal and viewable independently or comparatively (side by side); and
- Comprehensive summaries of each proposal and links to the actual legislation.
Visit Often
This website will be continuously updated as legislation is formally introduced and moves through Congress. The following measures currently can be found in this posting:
Please see the User's Guide to learn more about the Comparative Legislative Tables.
Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program, GW Department of Health Policy Health Faculty and Staff
The materials on the following pages have been prepared by faculty and staff in the GW Department of Health Policy and Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program.
- Sara Rosenbaum, JD
- Jane Hyatt Thorpe, JD
- Lara Cartwright-Smith, JD, MPH
- Taylor Burke, JD, LLM
- Erica Pereira, JD
- Chris Weiser
- Stephanie David, JD, MPH
- Kristin Younger, JD, MPH
- Sara Schroth
- Erin Hertzog, JD, MPH
- Peter Holman, JD
- Melissa Morrison-Reyes
- Joe Smith
- Christian Hertzog, JD
- Althea Stewart, LLM, LLB
- Joel Teitelbaum, JD, LLM
- Nicole Kaufman, JD
- Ben Williams
- Orriel Richardson
- Alexandra Stewart, JD
- Becky Beauregard
- Jennifer Lee, MD
- Padi McFadden, MD
- Molly Margulies
- Anna Stoto
- Andrew Hakanson
- Jen Leonard, JD, MPH
- Melissa Goldstein, JD
- Michael Sandstrom, MFA
- Ross Margulies
About the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy
The Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program, located in the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy, offers unique educational opportunities designed to provide a solid grounding in health law and policy to candidates for law degrees; practicing lawyers who seek to specialize in health law and policy; and health policy students. By fostering an interdisciplinary approach, the program seeks to advance a greater understanding of:
- How the law influences all phases of health care, health policy and public health.
- How the changing health care system affects traditional areas of the law.
The Hirsh Program, one of the largest law and health policy educational endeavors in the nation, was established in 1997 and endowed by Dr. and Mrs. Harold and Jane Hirsh. Harold Hirsh was a leader in the field of law and medicine and for many years a member of the GW faculty. For more information about the Department of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, visit www.gwumc.edu/sphhs/departments/healthpolicy.
About The George Washington University Medical Center
The George Washington University Medical Center is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary academic health center that has consistently provided high-quality medical care in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area for 176 years. The Medical Center comprises the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the 11th oldest medical school in the country; the School of Public Health and Health Services, the only such school in the nation's capital; GW Hospital, jointly owned and operated by a partnership between The George Washington University and Universal Health Services, Inc.; and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, an independent faculty practice plan. For more information on GWUMC, visit www.gwumc.edu.