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Seven panelists from the health-care and legal sectors taking questions from an assembled media panel, including WBEN's Susan Rose.
The panelists included LaVonne Ansari, Ph.D., CEO and executive director, Community Health Center of Buffalo; Donald Ingalls, vice president of state and federal relations with HealthNow New York; James Kaskie, president and CEO of Kaleida Health; William Keefer, partner and health-law practice team leader at Phillips Lytle LLP; John La Falce, former U.S. Congressman and special counsel, Hogan Willig; Dr. Tom Rosenthal, University at Buffalo Family Medicine; and Anthony Shelley, chair of the executive committee at Miller & Chevalier in Washington, D.C.
The panelists answered questions for close to 90 minutes at the BlueCross BlueShield headquarters at 257 W. Genesee St. in Buffalo.
When asked about an upcoming vote to repeal the law, former congressman John LaFalce says the Republican-controlled House will approve it, but the effort will die in the U-S Senate.
"[Majority Leader] Harry Reid will not bring it up ... and so nothing will happen legislatively," LaFalce said.
Kaleida Health's Kaskie says the court ruling has made health care a kitchen-table discussion topic.
"I think society, government, employers, everyone has said the way we're doing it, the way we're structured, the way we operate is not sustainable," Kaskie said.
Health-Now New York's Ingalls says the upcoming health-insurance exchanges should help reduce costs for health plans in the individual consumer market.
"As we move to a more retail approach for people buying insurance on their own, this could be a big factor in helping to make individual insurance more affordable," he said, noting that most people nowadays purchase their insurance plans through employer-group plans.
The audio of the entire forum is available on the website's home page.