Our July meeting of Health TechNet was held on Friday, July 22, at Nelson Mullins’ offices in Washington, D.C.
The feature topic was a discussion of the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and related health legislative policies as we face an uncertain configuration of Congress and the White House at the end of the year. Many problems with the ACA have been under discussion, including the employer mandates, the financial viability of the insurance exchanges, the nature and amounts of federal premium subsidies, and continuing uncertainty of various benefits. At the same time, several provisions of the ACA have gained some popularity. House Speaker Paul Ryan has recently released a proposal for revamping the ACA on behalf of Republicans, which we discussed, along with what is known and not known about the positions of the two presumptive presidential nominees. Finally, there is much activity at the state level that in many ways could overshadow federal policy initiatives.
Our primary speaker on this important topic was Mr. David Quam, a new partner in the government relations practice at Nelson Mullins. Mr. Quam was previously the Deputy Director of the National Governors Association and its chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill. He now provides clients with coordinated state and federal policy solutions, strategy, and representation, combined with knowledge in high-level policy negotiations, presidential and gubernatorial transitions, legislative drafting and process, state government, tax, intellectual property rights, homeland security, telecommunications, electronic commerce, international trade and investment, National Guard, education, Medicaid, regulatory reform, insurance, the Constitution, and veterans affairs.
David was joined by Nelson Mullins healthcare partner David Main, who served as counsel to the Senate Health Subcommittee and is a long-time advocate of his clients’ health policy interests on Capitol Hill and before the Executive Branch.