Post Date: October 3, 2006
HLS students recently teamed up with Robert Greenwald, a clinical instructor at the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center’s Health Law Clinic, to lead a two-day policy session for members of the Great Lakes AIDS Policy Consortium.
Providing an overview of the current national heath care policy landscape and its impact on state health care programs, the HLS students–Sarah Schalman-Bergen (3L), Kelley Coleman (2L), Andrea Glen (3L) and Ariana Ornelas (3L)–covered topics ranging from the recently enacted federal Deficit Reduction Act to the Ryan White CARE Act.
Participants included directors of statewide AIDS organizations, regional pharmaceutical industry representatives and people living with HIV/AIDS from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and Illinois. The group worked to identify concrete plans for addressing health care access issues for poor and low-income people in the states represented.
“Law school classes provide us with the tools necessary to change the system, but nowhere to use them,” said Schalman-Bergen. “The Great Lakes AIDS Policy Summit gave us the opportunity to team up with grassroots organizations that had the community base to change the system, but not necessarily the tools. I believe we can make a real difference in each of these states for thousands of people living with HIV and AIDS.”
For more information regarding the Great lakes AIDS Policy Summit, please visit the Legal Services Center.