W.Va. Law Review addresses Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

MORGANTOWN -- The latest issue of the West Virginia Law Review, designated "Health Care in America," is one of the first law reviews in the country to substantively address the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed earlier this year.

In Issue 1, St. Louis University School of Law Professor Sidney D. Watson discusses the Act's impact on rural health care in "Mending the Fabric of Small Town America: Health Reform and Rural Economies."

Professor Dayna Bowen Matthew of the University of Colorado Law School explores the reach of the Affordable Care Act with respect to combating health care disparities while advancing the novel idea that non-disparate health care is a property interest enforceable under principles of fiduciary law, in "Defeating Health Care Disparities – A Property Interest Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010."

Finally, Professor Eleanor D. Kinney of the Indiana University School of Law addresses the international human right to health, with discussion of both domestic and international efforts aimed at providing and supplying health care goods and services, in "Realizing the International Human Right to Health: The Challenge of For-Profit Health Care."

Issue 1 also includes five student works, including "The Tie that Binds: Forum Selection Clause Enforceability in West Virginia" by J. Zak Ritchie; "The Costs of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease and the Federal Benefits Dilemma" by Sarah McDaniel; "Take Me Home to Conley v. Gibson, Country Roads: An Analysis of the Effect of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal on West Virginia's Pleading Doctrine" by Devon J. Stewart; "The Problem with the Solution: Why West Virginians Shouldn't 'Settle' for the Uniform Debt Management Services Act" by Ryan McCune Donovan; and "Taking Out the Context: A Critical Analysis of Associated Press v. Canterbury" by Kevin Gillen.

This issue of the Law Review, the first in Volume 113, is dedicated to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the senior senator from West Virginia and longtime advocate for health care reform. In a ceremony held Friday, November 12, 2010, Senator Rockefeller addressed criticisms of the Affordable Care Act, including those who question the constitutionality of the individual mandate.

Rockefeller reminded his audience that a federal court recently rejected such a challenge to the Act. Rockefeller had few positive words for the for-profit health insurance industry, discussing his support for the ultimately unsuccessful public option. Rockefeller suggested that the constitutionality of the Act – as well as its importance – does not rest on the Act itself but on its forthcoming implementation by the Department of Health and Human Services. Rockefeller urged the law students to actively engage with the constitutional issues as well as the specifics of the future of health care reform.

Founded in 1894, the West Virginia Law Review is the fourth oldest law review in the United States and publishes three issues each year. The West Virginia Law Review is a professional, student-governed legal journal that publishes articles of interest to legal scholars, students, legislators, and members of the practicing Bar. The publication, which includes notes, comments, and articles of scholarly and practical value to the legal community, is published by a student editorial board.

Webcasts of the symposium speakers can be viewed at http://law.wvu.edu/healtcare2010.