Three panelists spent two hours explaining U.S. health care’s cur- rent state and its possible future at UF’s Levin College of Law on Friday.
About 142 people gathered at the college to discuss health policy under President Donald Trump’s administration. The UF Journal of Law and Public Policy hosted the event with UF’s Health Care Law Society.
Panelists included Diane Ung and Myla Reizen, health care lawyers from the national firm Foley & Lardner LLP, and Carol Gormley, Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s deputy chief of staff for policy.
Jonelle Joseph, a UF sociology sophomore, said she attended to gather data for a project about how the health care system failed people of lower socioeconomic status.
“I feel like I definitely learned a lot about where health care is going,” the 19-year-old said.
James Roberts, the senior vice president of UF Health Shands who also spoke at the event, said Trump’s proposed federal budget, released March 16, cuts nearly $13 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The White House’s website lists $12.6 billion being cut from the department.
During the panel, speakers discussed efforts to dismantle and replace the Affordable Care Act, which was instituted in March 2010 by former President Barack Obama and requires Americans to be insured, allows people up to 26 years old to use their parents’ health care and requires insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.
Gormley said conflicts about health policy in Congress are caused partly by Democrats and Republicans refusing to work together, such as divisions over the Affordable Care Act and it’s possible replacement.
“It is possible for any angry person to reach a lot of people with anger and without much thought, debate or analysis,” she said. “I think that’s affecting our elections, it’s affecting our policymakers once they’re in office and what they’re capable of doing.”
