If Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is elected this fall and has a majority-GOP U.S. House and Senate when he enters office, expect a quick move in Washington to repeal health care reform, a featured speaker at a seminar on that topic said Thursday in Gainesville.

“I can almost assure you that, after the inauguration, one of the first acts of the new government will be to repeal this law,” said Richard D. Sanders, an Atlanta lawyer who has served as vice chairman of the American Health Lawyers Association’s Health Reform Task Force.

“What if that happens? Employer penalties, (insurance) exchanges and Medicaid expansion are gone. Some insurance changes ... will (be) likely to remain.

“Republicans are planning on winning and repealing, then passing a new law sometime around the ... first week of February that puts back in place the parts of (health care reform) that people really like.”

Sanders said that if President Barack Obama is re-elected and has a majority Democratic House and Senate, “we may see not only (health care reform) preserved and implemented as we go forward, but we may see an expansion of that.”

He referred to an earlier point he made about how the U.S. Supreme Court found that “government doesn’t have the power to tell you that you’ve got to buy health insurance, but it has the power to tax you if you don’t.”

Sanders then noted a New York City ordinance banning businesses from selling sugary soft drinks larger than 16 ounces.

“What if that line of thinking goes down to Washington and a Democratic president and a Democratic-majority Congress and President Obama say, ‘You know what? Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg had it right, the whole country doesn’t need to be drinking giant, sugary soft drinks. Let’s make that a national law.’”

Sanders added: “You may (think) that’s awesome — we need something to really challenge the obesity epidemic in our country and the federal government is the only entity that can do it.

“Or you might say, ‘Don’t tread on me. I don’t want that kind of government in our country.’”

The vote on Nov. 6 “could decide things for years to come for health care reform,” Sanders said.

The seminar, taking place at the Georgia Mountains Center, was sponsored by the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, Turner Wood & Smith Insurance and Northeast Georgia Health System.

The new health care law “represents the most significant regulatory overhaul of the U.S. health care system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965,” said Rob Fowler, executive vice president of Turner Wood & Smith.

It’s aimed primarily at “decreasing the number of uninsured Americans, but this new law creates a (range of issues), including tax liabilities, rising costs, complex regulations and new reporting requirements.”

Fowler said that earlier this year, he approached Kit Dunlap, the chamber’s president and CEO, about the need for the seminar.

“We have the responsibility to educate the community,” he said.