Law Commons^™

Brief Of Amici Curiae Health Law & Policy Scholars And Prescription Policy Choices In Support Of Respondents On The Constitutional Validity Of The Medicaid Expansion, Kevin Outterson, Laura Hermer, Nicole Huberfeld, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Sara Rosenbaum, Sidney D. Watson

All Faculty Scholarship

The Medicaid expansion in Section 2001(a)(1)(C) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is one part of Congress’s comprehensive effort to expand access to health care coverage. This expansion is not revolutionary, but builds on many prior statutory amendments to Medicaid. Nor does it alter the voluntary nature of the Medicaid program – as before, States remain free to decline federal funding. The Petitioners and their amici have mischaracterized the expansion to obscure these facts, hoping this Court will unravel this hard-fought legislative enactment.

The question presented is whether Congress may offer States generous additional funding for Medicaid, with …

Racial Disparities In Accessing Health Care And Health Status, Ruqaiijah Yearby

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Point (Overview): Interpersonal and institutional racial biases are the principal reasons for racial disparities in accessing health care and disparities in African Americans’ health status, which can only be addressed by acknowledging and putting an end to interpersonal and institutional racial bias in the health care system that adversely affects the health status African-Americans.

Counterpoint (Overview): The irrational structure of health care, which is based on ability to pay, rather than need is the main cause of racial disparities in health, which will not be equalized until the structure of the health care system is fixed or when African Americans’ …

Regulators As Market-Makers: Accountable Care Organizations And Competition Policy, Thomas L. Greaney

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Of the many elements animating structural change under health reform, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have drawn the greatest attention. The ACO strategy entails regulatory interventions that at once aim to reshape the health care delivery system, improve outcomes, promote adoption of evidence based medicine and supportive technology, and create a platform for controlling costs under payment system reform. Ambitious aims to be sure. Implementation, however, has proved a wrenching process. This article looks at the intersection of markets and regulation under the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, it analyzes regulatory interventions under the MSSP designed to foster commercial market competition. Assessing …

Breaking The Cycle Of “Unequal Treatment” With Health Care Reform: Acknowledging And Addressing The Continuation Of Racial Bias, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Since the Civil War access to health care in the United States has been racially unequal. This racially unequal access to health care remains even after the passage of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and the election of an African-American President. Both of these events held the promise of equality, yet the promise has never been fulfilled. Now, many hail the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (“ACA”) as the biggest governmental step in equalizing access to health care because it has the potential to increase minority access to health …

Advancing Health Law & Social Justice In The Clinic, The Classroom And The Community, John J. Ammann

All Faculty Scholarship

Law school clinics are paramount to developing law school graduates who embrace their “special responsibility for the quality of justice,” as well as their role in ensuring equal access to justice for marginalized, impoverished and underserved members of society. This responsibility permeates every aspect of lawyering, especially the practice of health law. This article explores, first, how clinics and social justice fit into the practice of health law and into the training of future health law attorneys and policymakers. Second, it defines social justice in the context of health and, finally, it provides examples that demonstrate how we can, and …

Gender, Family, And Work, Marcia L. Mccormick

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The country has prohibited sex discrimination since the 1960’s, but society continues to view women and men differently because women give birth, breastfeed, and are traditional caregivers. This article takes a historical look at court decisions and legislative efforts to address equality where men and women are not similarly situated and also explores recent developments and current debates, such as caregiver discrimination, lactation rooms and breaks, and the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. Despite the abundance of legislation and court decisions over the past forty years, much progress still needs to be made.

Pursuing High Performance In Rural Health Care, A. Clinton Mackinney, Keith J. Mueller, Andrew F. Coburn, Jennifer P. Lundblad, Timothy D. Mcbride, Sidney D. Watson

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In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for transformation of the United States health care system to make it safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable.1 The journey toward these six aims in public policy and the private sector is underway, but fundamental challenges detailed by the IOM remain. Patients are injured at alarming rates, wide variation in care exists across geographies, patients complain of insensitive and/or inaccessible health care providers, health care costs are nearly twice that in other developed countries, and nearly 50 million Americans lack health insurance. As a result, our health care is often fragmented, …

Shifting Public Health Priorities And The Global Effort To Prevent A Bird Flu Pandemic, Robert Gatter

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Global strategy to control highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has changed dramatically since 2003 when it was first reported that a confirmed bird flu jumped the species barrier to infect a human in Hong Kong. Evidence of this shift in priorities in the global fight against HPAI can be found most clearly in program funding trends. In late 2008 and into 2009, financial commitments from international donors for all HPAI programs dropped significantly. Meanwhile, within HPAI programs, funding shifted substantially away from animal biosecurity projects and into human response and preparedness work. This Article examines three reasons for this shift …