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Due Process For Hill-Burton Assisted Facilities, Margaret L. Huddleston

Vanderbilt Law Review

The need to make health care available to all Americans does not justify the impairment of governmental contracts with Hill-Burton grantees. When substantial rights are greatly impaired by retroactive legislation, the need for a strong governmental justification becomes more acute. The impairment caused by the post-1947 Hill-Burton regulations, particularly the 1979 regulations, is neither reasonable nor necessary in light of the nature and extent to which they impair substantial private rights. The recent Hill-Burton regulations attempt to make health care more available to Americans,but the Government seeks to do this without additional financial expenditure on its part. Although the goal …