Biomedical Ethics Seminar Explores Ins and Outs of U.S. Health Care Reform Bill
Professor Susan Channick explains Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at seminar co-sponsored by UC San Diego School of Medicine

Professor Susan A. Channick teaches Health Law & Policy and Public Health Law

"The UCSD Biomedical Ethics Seminar is a venue for interested persons in the community to come together to discuss the ethics of medical, scientific and legal current issues," says Channick. "It provided a perfect teaching moment for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." 

Part of the Obama administration's health care reform agenda, some legislators and policymakers have criticized the PPACA for its complexity, in part because of the more than 2,000 pages it takes to explain the legislation.

"Because the act is, unfortunately, very complex," says Channick, "I believe public acceptance of it will be enhanced by repeated exposure to its terms and multiple opportunities for clarification." 

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Passed on March 23, 2010, by President Obama, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is "health insurance reform that is designed to create an almost-universal health insurance regime," according to Channick.

PPACA also creates a federal regulatory scheme for health insurance which will, in addition to other protections, guarantee issue and renewability to everyone without regard to health status. 

"Ideally, this will mean that health insurance will be available to those who need it the most - the sick and victims of accidents," says Channick.

This insight is just a portion of what is shared at the Biomedical Ethics Seminar Series.

Biomedical Ethics Seminar Series
Since June of 1999, UC San Diego has hosted the Biomedical Ethics Seminar Series, which meets once a month to provide a forum for the UC San Diego campus to discuss bioethics, medical ethics, and research ethics.

California Western Professor Joanna K. Sax spoke at the seminar series this past January on the economic issues related to pharmacist conscience clauses.

The seminar series is supported by the Institute of Health Law Studies at California Western and E. Donald Shapiro, the man credited with establishing the health care law area of legal study.

California Western and UC San Diego
The partnership between California Western and UC San Diego for the Biomedical Ethics Seminar Series serves as an example of the value of educational collaboration and demonstrates how the schools partner to bring academic excellence to the San Diego region.

Other speaker events co-sponsored by the two schools include the annual DeWitt "Dutch" Higgs Memorial Lecture, named for the California Western alumnus who served as San Diego's first UC Regent, the annual international law speaker series, and the UC San Diego Economics Roundtable.

California Western and UC San Diego also grant a dual master's degree in Health Law, the only program of its kind in the country, and jointly administer the Community Law Project, a medical-legal pro bono project serving downtown San Diego.