UH Law Center's annual Frankel Lecture Oct. 31 examines claims and evidence surrounding health care reform act

Experts weigh in on likelihood of success in efforts to make insurance more available and affordable

HOUSTON, Oct. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 18^th Annual Frankel Lecture, sponsored by the Houston Law Review at the University of Houston Law Center, will focus on the prospects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) succeeding or failing with its efforts to overhaul health insurance.

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Mark A. Hall, Fred and Elizabeth Turnage Professor of Law and Public Health at Wake Forest University, is the keynote speaker Oct. 31 and will discuss Reforming the Market for Individual Health Insurance: Success is in the Eye of the Beholder.

Commentators are David Orentlicher, M.D., J.D., Samuel R. Rosen Professor and co-director of the Center for Law and Health at Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law, and William M. Sage, M.D., J.D., James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence in Law at the University of Texas at Austin.

"The ACA radically reforms the individual health insurance market, making it the lynchpin for its complex coverage machinery,"  Hall states in his article abstract. "Critics claim that these reforms will cause massive price increases or major reductions in competition, and will attract mainly sick subscribers, potentially threatening a market collapse. Various states and industry actors (insurers and agents) have taken a range of stances from favorable to hostile toward these reforms."

With open enrollment having begun Oct. 1, Hall said the prospects for success or failure of the reform act are still up in the air, but his discussion and Law Review article will examine current evidence and claims.

Hall co-directs Wake Forest's Master of Arts in Bioethics program and has appointments in the schools of Law, Medicine, and Business. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School with a fellowship at Johns Hopkins, Hall specializes in health care law and public policy, with a focus on economic, regulatory and organizational issues. He is currently studying health insurance reform, safety net access for the uninsured, and the legal and ethical implications of consumer-driven health care.

The Frankel lecture will be from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., Oct. 31 at the Doubletree Hotel by Hilton, 400 Dallas St., downtown Houston. The event is free and open to the public and attorneys in attendance can receive two hours of CLE credit.

For more information: 
Media Contacts: Carrie Criado, UH Law Center Executive Director of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-2184, [email protected]; or John T. Kling, UH Law Center Communications Manager, 713- 743-8298, [email protected].

About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 40,700 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country.

About the University of Houston Law Center
The University of Houston Law Center is the leading law school in the nation's fourth-largest city. Founded in 1947, it is a top-tier institution awarding Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees. The Law Center is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

SOURCE University of Houston Law Center