Law Commons^™

Managing Medicaid, Isaac ("Zack") D. Buck

Scholarly Works

In a steady but rapid march, managed care has come to Medicaid. Privatization has undoubtedly rebuilt the Medicaid landscape across America over the last three decades. Now, as managed care programs administer health care to three-in-four Medicaid beneficiaries nationwide, whether or not managed care is adequately managing America’s largest public insurance program has become an increasingly important question.

Of particular note have been states’ difficulties in constructing and organizing the bidding and selection processes of the private companies tasked with overseeing the administration of private Medicaid plans. Legal challenges to various states’ bid procurement processes have been well documented. These …

The Affordable Care Act And The Chronic Challenge Of Cost Control, Isaac ("Zack") D. Buck

Scholarly Works

The embattled Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) has endured years of existential threats. From the Supreme Court’s piercing NFIB v. Sebelius decision in 2012, to blocked funding from an unfriendly Congress, to the administrative changes from the Trump administration, and finally through a summer of repeal and replace proposals, the ACA has been politically battered and fundamentally reshaped. These changes have hindered its cost control efforts, and, consequently, policy-based inroads initially mandated by the ACA—most notably, attempts at both shrinking cost-shifting and growing the leverage of payers in the system—have been blunted and neutralized. Most notably, …

How Dreamland Colored My Summer Vacation And Thinking About The Opioid Epidemic, Elizabeth Leonard

Scholarly Works

Book Review of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones,(2018).

Medicalization Of Rural Poverty: Challenges For Access, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

This article was prepared for a live conference, on “The Medicalization of Poverty,” held at the University of Illinois College of Law, and a symposium to be published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. My piece focuses on a constellation of challenges for health care delivery and access to care in rural areas. Discussions regarding health and poverty often seem to focus on the admittedly persistent and multilayered problems of the urban poor: unemployment, substandard and unaffordable housing, violent crime, nutrition and “food desserts,” recreation and safe outdoor spaces, and under-resourced public schools, to name a few. While …