WFU Law Professor Presents Healthcare Reform Research to Congress: Hopes to Testify at NC Hearings

The Affordable Care Act is once again being debated on Capitol Hill, as well as at kitchen tables across the country.

On May 21, Mark Hall, a Wake Forest University Law professor, testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee of Science, Commerce, and Transportation as the Committee debating the implications of the minimum medical loss ratio, a stipulation of the Affordable Care Act.

He sat down with WFDD's Keri Brown to talk about his testimony and to take a closer look at the benefits and potential drawbacks to the requirement.

Hall says the content of his testimony was based on a series of reports he co-wrote with his colleague, Michael McCue, professor of public health at Virginia Commonwealth University. The reports were written for the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving health services for Americans.

Hall and McCue's work discusses the impact of recent health care reform on the consumer value of health insurance. Their 2013 report, titled “Impact of Medical Loss Regulation on the Financial Performance of Health Insurers,” showed that routine costs, not requirements of the Affordable Care Act, contributed to the majority of health insurance rate increases in the last year.

In North Carolina, the General Assembly has called for hearings to examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the state. Hall says he also hopes to testify at these events. The hearings are expected to be held sometime in late summer or early fall.