Mariannette Miller-Meeks, director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, will speak as this week’s Policy Matters’ guest lecturer on the topic of health care policy at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 11 in the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium.

Public Policy Center Director Peter Damiano will join Miller-Meeks, M.D., in discussing the Affordable Care Act of 2009 and various dimensions of health care reform. UI history professor Colin Gordon will moderate the discussion on the legal challenges facing the law and its implementation at the state level.

“This is an issue that goes to the core of the relationship between citizen and state, and between state and federal governments,” says Gordon.

Damiano said the lecture will present a balanced view of the history of health care reform in America, the aspects of the Affordable Care Act that are already in place, those that will go into place in 2014 and the role of the Iowa Department of Public Health in the law's implementation.

The event is free and open to the public, as are all Policy Matters sessions. For more information on this event and future Policy Matters sessions, visit: http://ppc.uiowa.edu/policymatters.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, contact the Public Policy center by calling 319-335-6800 or emailing Damiano at peter-damiano@uiowa.edu.