A D.C. Council panel didn’t wait long after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding President Obama’s healthcare reforms to move ahead with implementing the law in the District.
The council’s health committee on Friday approved the nominations of seven people to the Health Insurance Exchange Board, the body that will oversee a city-operated system for individuals and businesses to purchase coverage.
“Today’s markup is another step forward in the District’s journey to fully realizing the benefits of healthcare reform,” at-large Councilman David Catania, the health committee’s chairman, said in a statement.
The likely board members, whom Mayor Vincent Gray nominated, still face approval by the full D.C. Council.
They include:
— Henry Aaron, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute
— Mohammed Akhter, who is taking a leave of absence from his post as director of the D.C. Department of Health to serve on the panel
— Leighton Ku, a health policy professor at George Washington University
— Diane Lewis
— Kevin Lucia, a Georgetown University professor
— Khalid Pitts
— Kate Sullivan Hare, the director of policy outreach and public affairs at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
