July 25, 2011 — The new health insurance marketplace that begins in three years will be discussed at a major policy briefing July 27 in Washington, D.C. co-sponsored by the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

The three-hour briefing, "Health Insurance Exchange Development: Innovation in the States," will begin at 9 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1000 H St. N.W. Among the speakers will be the Batten School's Ray Scheppach, professor of the practice of public policy, who also is a visiting fellow at U.Va.'s Miller Center. Scheppach is chairman of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Health Project Insurance Market Reforms Initiative.

The policy briefing will discuss progress on the ways people will buy private insurance and the next steps planned for the insurance marketplace. The briefing is free and open to the public; attendees may register here.

Also speaking will be Ted Strickland, a former Democratic governor of Ohio; Robert F. Bennett, a former Republican U.S. senator from Utah; and Tom Daschle, a former Democratic U.S. senator from South Dakota. All three are with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a co-sponsor of the event. The Kaiser Family Foundation is the third co-sponsor.

Fifteen other panelists also will be at the briefing, including Cindi Jones, director of the Virginia Health Reform Initiative.