EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 4-5:30 p.m. Feb. 11

EVENT: The Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation will bring together key Massachusetts and Michigan business leaders along with University of Michigan experts to explore lessons from Massachusetts’ experience with health reform and what may be ahead as the Affordable Care Act is implemented in Michigan.

Specific topics include:
• Explore how Chapter 58, Massachusetts’ health reform legislation of 2006, was enacted and implemented with strong support and engagement from the business community.
• Hear how business leaders were engaged in Massachusetts and the impact their involvement had on the overall law and implementation.
• Learn the impact the Massachusetts law had on the overall business and state economic climate and how aspects of this experience might be relevant for Michigan.
• Study why it may prove beneficial for the Michigan business community to be similarly engaged as the state moves forward with plans to comply with the Affordable Care Act.

Panelists are: Thomas Buchmueller, the Waldo O. Hildebrand Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at U-M’s Ross School of Business and School of Public Health; Rob Fowler, president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan; Helen Levy, research associate professor at the Ford School of Public Policy and School of Public Health; Rick Lord, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Massachusetts; and Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

PLACE: Walter and Leonore Annenberg Auditorium at the Ford School of Public Policy, 1120 Weill Hall, 735 South State St., Ann Arbor

SPONSORS: Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the Ford School of Public Policy, Griffith Leadership Center at the School of Public Health’s Department of Health Management and Policy, Ross School of Business and U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. Webcast courtesy of re:group, an integrated marketing agency based in Ann Arbor. The symposium is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and staff support from Community Catalyst.

INFORMATION: For directions and parking information visit http://fordschool.umich.edu/about/contact/index.php

WEBCAST: Go to www.chrt.org on the day of the event. To submit questions during the webcast, join the conversation on Twitter: #CHRTtalks