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Full-Text Articles in Law
Health Care And The Myth Of Self-Reliance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Health Care And The Myth Of Self-Reliance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
King v. Burwell asked the Supreme Court to decide if, in providing assistance to purchase insurance “through an Exchange established by the State,” Congress meant to subsidize policies bought on the federally run exchange. With its ruling, the Court saved the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s low-income subsidy. But King is only part of a longer, more complex story about health care access for the poor. In a move toward universal coverage, two pillars of the ACA facilitate health insurance coverage for low-income Americans, one private and one public: (1) the subsidy and (2) Medicaid expansion. Although both have …
An Empirical Perspective On Medicaid As Social Insurance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
An Empirical Perspective On Medicaid As Social Insurance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This Essay begins to explore how Medicaid, after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, metamorphoses from exclusion and limitations in access and benefits to a form of social insurance that implicates theories of social justice. The social justice aspect of universality provides an important lens for understanding these numbers, both in terms of the states that are expanding and the states that are opting out. States that refuse to expand their Medicaid programs are denying millions of Americans the benefit of a precious legal entitlement. It is essential that the states understand the power—and the potential—of this evolving social …
The Universality Of Medicaid At Fifty, Nicole Huberfeld
The Universality Of Medicaid At Fifty, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This essay explores how the law of Medicaid after fifty years creates a meaningful principle of universalism by shifting from fragmentation and exclusivity to universality and inclusivity. The universality principle provides a new trajectory for all of American health care, one that is not based on individual qualities that are unrelated to medical care but rather grounded in non-judgmental principles of unification and equalization (if not outright solidarity). To that end, this Essay first will study the legislative reformation that led to universality and its quantifiable effects. The Essay then will assess and evaluate Medicaid’s new universality across four dimensions, …
Medicaid Expansion As Completion Of The Great Society, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Medicaid Expansion As Completion Of The Great Society, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
On the doorstep of its fiftieth anniversary, Medicaid at last could achieve the ambitious goals President Lyndon B. Johnson enunciated for the Great Society upon signing Medicare and Medicaid into law in 1965. Although the spotlight shone on Medicare at the time, Medicaid was the “sleeper program” that caught America’s neediest in its safety net—but only some of them. Medicaid’s exclusion of childless adults and other “undeserving poor” loaned an air of “otherness” to enrollees, contributing to its stigma and seeming political fragility. Now, Medicaid touches every American life. One in five Americans benefits from Medicaid’s healthcare coverage, and that …
Plunging Into Endless Difficulties: Medicaid And Coercion In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, Nicole Huberfeld, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Kevin Outterson
Plunging Into Endless Difficulties: Medicaid And Coercion In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, Nicole Huberfeld, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Kevin Outterson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Until the 2011 Term, no Supreme Court decision since the New Deal had struck down an act of Congress as exceeding the federal spending power. The question of unconstitutionally coercive conditions was also novel. Indeed, no federal court had ever found any legislation to be an unconstitutionally coercive exercise of the spending power until the Court decided National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (NFIB) on June 28, 2012. This Article proceeds as follows: Part I discusses the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion in the context of the history and purpose of the Medicaid Act, paying particular attention to facts …
Where There Is A Right, There Must Be A Remedy (Even In Medicaid), Nicole Huberfeld
Where There Is A Right, There Must Be A Remedy (Even In Medicaid), Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This Article will explore the power struggle that Medicaid invites and its potential elevation due to the pressures that will follow the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion. Part I of this Article will describe the three phases of private enforcement litigation and how they have affected Medicaid reimbursement rates. This Part also will highlight the deceptive stability that has taken root in the lower federal courts by describing the recent state attempts to end private enforcement actions. The first Part will conclude by briefly considering the nature of the federalism arguments that states are making. Part II …
Book Review | The Politics Of Medicaid By Laura Katz Olson, Nicole Huberfeld
Book Review | The Politics Of Medicaid By Laura Katz Olson, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In this book review, Professor Nicole Huberfeld examines The Politics of Medicaid, by Laura Katz Olson, which was published in 2010 by Columbia University Press.
Post-Reform Medicaid Before The Court: Discordant Advocacy Reflects Conflicting Attitudes, Nicole Huberfeld
Post-Reform Medicaid Before The Court: Discordant Advocacy Reflects Conflicting Attitudes, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The United States Supreme Court heard two Medicaid cases this term that raise major questions about the program and the tensions it creates between the federal and state governments. On October 3, 2011, the Court heard oral arguments in Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California, a dispute between California and its Medicaid providers regarding reimbursement cuts resulting from California's budget crisis. The Medicaid providers argued that the proposed cuts are so extreme as to violate federal law and thus the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. Their contention hinged on the Equal Access Provision of the Medicaid …
Federalizing Medicaid, Nicole Huberfeld
Federalizing Medicaid, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This Article is one of only a small number of proposals over the past forty-six years for federalizing Medicaid. None of these proposals has grappled directly with the reasons that Medicaid does not satisfy federalism goals, and thus a key reason for modernizing Medicaid’s structure has been ignored. Despite being an area of “traditional state concern,” healthcare should no longer be left to the economic and political whims of the states, as Medicaid is not an effective Brandeisian “laboratory of the states.” Admittedly, some would oppose centralization on the ideological grounds that more federal government power is bad, and more …
Bizarre Love Triangle: The Spending Clause, Section 1983, And Medicaid Entitlements, Nicole Huberfeld
Bizarre Love Triangle: The Spending Clause, Section 1983, And Medicaid Entitlements, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The first two terms of the Roberts Court signal a willingness to revisit precedent, even decisions that have been considered long-settled, and the United States Supreme Court may be ready to reinterpret another area of jurisprudence: the private enforcement of conditions on federal spending against states through actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The most recent pre-Roberts Court precedent is Gonzaga University v. Doe, a 2002 decision that made it more difficult for individuals harmed by violations of federal laws to enforce rights through § 1983 actions. Federal courts have inconsistently and confusingly applied the Gonzaga framework, but the …
Clear Notice For Conditions On Spending, Unclear Implications For States In Federal Healthcare Programs, Nicole Huberfeld
Clear Notice For Conditions On Spending, Unclear Implications For States In Federal Healthcare Programs, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This Article explores Arlington Central School District Board of Education v. Murphy, a decision rendered by the first Roberts Court that may become a benchmark for Spending Clause jurisprudence. The majority in Arlington, led by Justice Alito, adopted the standard for constitutional conditions on spending that had been the dissenting view for years during the Rehnquist Court. More specifically, under the Pennhurst and Dole regime, the Court required Congress to provide "adequate" notice of conditions on spending, which seemed to be sufficient for the clear statement rule the Court (through Justice O'Connor) was seeking to institute. Arlington refashioned …
“There's Danger Here, Cherie!”: Liability For The Promotion And Marketing Of Drugs And Medical Devices For Off-Label Uses, Richard C. Ausness
“There's Danger Here, Cherie!”: Liability For The Promotion And Marketing Of Drugs And Medical Devices For Off-Label Uses, Richard C. Ausness
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Physicians often prescribe prescription drugs and other medications for uses that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), and such "off label" prescription is widely accepted within the medical community as a legitimate form of treatment. However, the federal government discourages off-label prescription and use in various ways. For example, the FDA restricts the dissemination of information by drug companies about potential off-label therapies. In addition, federally funded health insurance programs such as Medicaid do not reimburse health care providers for off-label uses. Because drug companies make large profits from off-label prescriptions, they are often tempted to …
Be Not Afraid Of Change: Time To Eliminate The Corporate Practice Of Medicine Doctrine, Nicole Huberfeld
Be Not Afraid Of Change: Time To Eliminate The Corporate Practice Of Medicine Doctrine, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This article focuses on three key reasons that the corporate practice of medicine doctrine should be laid to rest. First, the motives for creating the corporate practice of medicine doctrine are long gone; it has been some time since physicians have been able to operate as a guild of autonomous providers of health care. The delivery and financing of health care places physicians in an integrated system that is only frustrated by the corporate practice of medicine doctrine. Second, it is disingenuous to pretend that physicians are not influenced by financial gain. This is handily evidenced by the federal and …
Public Tort Litigation: Public Benefit Or Public Nuisance?, Richard C. Ausness
Public Tort Litigation: Public Benefit Or Public Nuisance?, Richard C. Ausness
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
One of the latest developments in products liability law is "public tort" litigation. Public tort or government-sponsored lawsuits are actions by federal, state, or local government entities to recover the cost of public services provided to persons who have been injured as the result of a defendant's alleged misconduct. The best known example is the tobacco litigation of the mid-1990s in which more than forty states brought suit against the leading tobacco companies to recoup the cost of providing health care services to indigent smokers. Eventually, the tobacco companies agreed to pay the states more than $200 billion and also …