Law Commons^™

December 5, 2012: Is Abortion Next?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is Abortion Next?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 27, 2012: A Compromise On The Contraception Mandate?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “A Compromise on the Contraception Mandate?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Can Consumers Control Health-Care Costs?, Mark A. Hall, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

The ultimate aim of health care policy is good care at good prices. Managed care failed to achieve this goal through influencing providers, so health policy has turned to the only market-based option left: treating patients like consumers. Health insurance and tax policy now pressure patients to spend their own money when they select health plans, providers, and treatments. Expecting patients to choose what they need at the price they want, consumerists believe that market competition will constrain costs while optimizing quality. This classic form of consumerism is today’s health policy watchword. This article evaluates consumerism and the regulatory mechanism …

August 24, 2012: Abortion And Rape, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Abortion and Rape“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

An O’Neill Institute Briefing Paper: The Supreme Court’S Landmark Decision On The Affordable Care Act: Healthcare Reform’S Ultimate Fate Remains Uncertain, Emily W. Parento, Lawrence O. Gostin

O'Neill Institute Papers

The Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a landmark on the path toward ensuring universal access to health care in the United States. In a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court upheld the law in its entirety with the sole exception that Congress may not revoke existing state Medicaid funding to penalize states that decline to participate in the Medicaid expansion under the ACA. In this O’Neill Institute Briefing, we explain and analyze the Court’s decision, focusing on the individual purchase mandate and the Medicaid expansion, while …

April 20, 2012: Back To The Bishops, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Back to the Bishops“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Spring 2012

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

March 30, 2012: A Fundamental Rights Case Masquerading As A Commerce Clause Case, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “A Fundamental Rights Case Masquerading as a Commerce Clause Case“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Healthcare Reform Hangs In The Balance, Lawrence O. Gostin

O'Neill Institute Papers

In this timely new briefing, Professor Lawrence O. Gostin, University Professor and Faculty Director, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University writes:

Prior to Tuesday’s arguments, I believed that the Supreme Court would uphold the health insurance purchase mandate by a comfortable margin. But now I believe that health care reform hangs in the balance. Here are the key arguments on which the future of President Obama’s health care reform depends: a greater freedom, cost-shifting, the health care market, acts versus omissions, limiting principles, the population-base approach, and what is necessary and proper. If the Court strikes …

Why The Affordable Care Act's Individual Purchase Mandate Is Both Constitutional And Indispensable To The Public Welfare, Lawrence O. Gostin

O'Neill Institute Papers

Integral to the Affordable Care Act's (ACA’s) conceptual design is the individual purchase mandate, which requires most individuals to pay an annual tax penalty if they do not have health insurance by 2014. Despite the vociferous opposition, the mandate is the most “market-friendly” financing device because it relies on the private sector. Ironically, less market-oriented reforms such as a single-payer system clearly would have been constitutional.

It is common sense for everyone to purchase health insurance and thus gain security against the potentially catastrophic costs of treating a serious illness or injury. However, Congress’ method of ensuring that everyone has …

March 11, 2012: Are Any Other Pro-Life People Outraged And Embarrassed?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Are Any Other Pro-Life People Outraged and Embarrassed?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

“Early-Bird Special” Indeed!: Why The Tax Anti-Injunction Act Permits The Present Challenges To The Minimum Coverage Provision, Michael C. Dorf, Neil S. Siegel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In view of the billions of dollars and enormous effort that might otherwise be wasted, the public interest will be best served if the Supreme Court of the United States reaches the merits of the present challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) during its October 2011 Term. Potentially standing in the way, however, is the federal Tax Anti-Injunction Act (TAIA), which bars any “suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax.” The dispute to date has mostly turned on the fraught and complex question of whether the ACA’s exaction for being …

Doctors, Patients, And Pills--A System Popping Under Too Much Physician Discretion? A Law-Policy Prescription To Make Drug Approval More Meaningful In The Delivery Of Health Care, Michael J. Malinowski

Journal Articles

This article challenges the scope of physician discretion to engage in off-label use of prescription drugs. The discretion to prescribe dimensions beyond the clinical research that puts new drugs on pharmacy shelves has been shaped by two historic influences: a legacy of physician paternalism, solidarity, autonomy, and self-determination that predates the contemporary commercialization of medicine by more than half a century, and regulatory necessity due to the limits of science and innate crudeness of pharmaceuticals prior to the genomics revolution (drug development and delivery based upon genetic expression). Although both factors have changed immensely, the standard for drug approval has …

Working Conditions And Patient Safety: Safe Staffing In Maine's Hospitals, Bureau Of Labor Education. University Of Maine

Bureau of Labor Education

A growing body of research is now documenting how serious problems in the work environments of nursing care in American hospitals are posing a threat to patient safety, as well as contributing to shortages of nurses working in hospital settings and in greater job stress and burnout among nurses. A major factor in this picture, according to a major report by the National Institute of Medicine, is the issue of chronic understaffing among direct care nurses.

Mixed Messages: The Intersection Of Prenatal Genetic Testing And Abortion, Rachel Rebouché, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article, prepared for the 2011 Wiley A. Branton Symposium at Howard Law School, provides a snapshot of how current law and practice generate mixed messages about prenatal genetic testing and abortion. The ability to screen and to test for genetic conditions prenatally is expanding, not only because of technological innovations but also because of increased legal and financial incentives. At the same time that prenatal genetic testing is expanding, abortion – one option pregnant women have after testing – is contracting. Federal and state legislation restricts abortion services, for example, by reducing or prohibiting funding; banning the types or …

Law & Health Care Newsletter, V. 20, No. 1, Fall 2012

Law & Health Care Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Child Welfare Cases Involving Mental Illness: Reflections On The Role And Responsibilities Of The Lawyer-Guardian Ad Litem, Frank E. Vandervort

Articles

Child welfare cases involving mental illness suffered either by a child or his parent can be among the most difficult and perplexing that a child’s lawyerguardian ad litem (L-GAL) will handle. They may present daunting problems of accessing necessary and appropriate services as well as questions about whether and when such mental health problems can be resolved or how best to manage them. They also require the L-GAL to carefully consider crucially important questions—rarely with all the information one would like to have and too often with information that comes late in the case, is fragmented or glaringly incomplete. This …

Global Health Law Norms And The Ppaca Framework To Eliminate Health Disparities, Gwendolyn R. Majette

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article analyzes how PPACA constitutes framework legislation that complies with global health law norms protecting a right to health in its approach to the reduction of health care disparities for racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Part I identifies the global health laws that impose a duty on the United States to eliminate health disparities for people of color. Part II analyzes the legislative framework that PPACA creates to protect the right to health and eliminate health care disparities. Finally, Part III concludes with my recommendations on future efforts to reduce and eliminate health care disparities for …

Affordable Care Act Litigation: The Standing Paradox, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Scholarly Works

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) litigation presents a standing paradox. In the current posture, it appears that states lack standing to challenge the federal law on behalf of individuals, while individuals possess standing to challenge the federal law on behalf of states. This Article contends that there is no principled reason for this asymmetry and argues that standing doctrine should apply as liberally to states as individuals, assuming states allege the constitutional minimum requirements for standing and especially where the legal challenge turns on allocation of power between the federal government and states. The Article proceeds by …

Insights From A National Conference: "Conflicts Of Interest In The Practice Of Medicine", David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Obligatory Health, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court will soon rule on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010. Courts thus far are divided on the question whether Congress had authority under the Commerce Clause to impose the Act's "Individual Mandate" to purchase health insurance. At this moment, the public and legal debate can benefit from a clearer understanding of the underlying rights claims. This Article offers two principal contributions. First, the Article argues that, while the constitutional question technically turns on the interpretation of congressional power under the Commerce Clause, underlying these debates is a tension between …

The Role Of Race In End-Of-Life Care, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

This essay focuses on one important aspect of racial disparities that has received comparatively little attention in the legal literature--the existence and causes of racial differences in end-of-life decision making and in the utilization of palliative and hospice care. African Americans and other racial minorities in the United States utilize palliative care and hospice less frequently than white Americans. These minority populations also tend to resist advance care planning and instead opt to receive more life-prolonging care at the end of life, even when quality of life and prognosis are poor. After a lifetime of limited access to health care …

Standards For Health Care Decision-Making: Legal And Practical Considerations, A. Kimberley Dayton

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the guardian’s role in making, or assisting the ward to make, health care decisions, and provides an overview of existing standards and tools that offer guidance in this area. Part II outlines briefly the legal decisions and statutory developments assuring patient autonomy in medical treatment, and shows how these legal texts apply to and structure the guardian’s role as health care decision-maker. Part III examines the range of legal and practical approaches to such matters as decision-making standards, determining the ward’s likely treatment preferences, and resolving conflicts between guardians and health care agents appointed by the ward. …

Health Care And The Illegal Immigrant, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The question of whether illegal immigrants should be entitled to some form of health coverage in the United States sits at the uneasy intersection of two contentious debates: health reform and immigration reform. Befitting this place, the rhetoric surrounding the issue has been exponentially heightened by the multiplying effects of combining two vitriolic debates. On one side, it is argued that the United States has a moral obligation to provide health care to all those within its borders needing such assistance. On the other, it is argued with equal force that those illegally present in this country should not be …