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Full-Text Articles in Law

Health Care Rationing And Disability Rights, Philip G. Peters Jr. Apr 1995

Health Care Rationing And Disability Rights, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

This article explores the extent to which federal disability rights law limits the use of effectiveness criteria to allocate health care, either alone or as a part of cost-effectiveness analyses. To be more precise, it considers the circumstances in which disability-based classifications by health plans which would otherwise violate the anti-discrimination laws can be legally and ethically defended by proof that the excluded treatments are less effective than those which are provided. Part I introduces the expanding use of effectiveness analysis in health care, explains its discriminatory potential, and reviews the Oregon experience. Part II outlines the current federal law …


Medicine, Death, And The Criminal Law, George J. Annas Jan 1995

Medicine, Death, And The Criminal Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Errors in medicine are common and are at least partly responsible for the deaths of 180,000 patients a year. There is increasing concern about medical errors and the steps that should be taken to prevent them.Until recently, hospitals have addressed errors after the fact, through mortality and morbidity conferences, incident reports, and the like, rather than before the fact, through attention to systems defects and prevention. Likewise, medical-malpractice litigation can be filed only after an injury has occurred. Malpractice litigation is intended to create incentives to improve the quality of medical care by making physicians and hospitals accountable for their …


The Health Of The President And Presidential Candidates: The Public's Right To Know, George J. Annas Jan 1995

The Health Of The President And Presidential Candidates: The Public's Right To Know, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

In July 1995, presidential candidate Robert Dole celebrated his 72nd birthday by releasing a detailed nine-page summary of his medical records. His personal physician told the press that despite the serious wounds Dole received during World War II, which left his right arm paralyzed and required the removal of one kidney, and despite his 1991 surgery for prostate cancer, his health was “excellent.” Dole was also photographed on his treadmill.


Reframing The Debate On Health Care Reform By Replacing Our Metaphors, George J. Annas Jan 1995

Reframing The Debate On Health Care Reform By Replacing Our Metaphors, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Metaphors matter, as our sterile debate on the fi-nancing of health insurance demonstrates so well. In that debate the traditional metaphor of American medicine, the military metaphor, was displaced by the market metaphor in public discourse. Metaphors, which entice us to understand and experience “one kind of thing in terms of another . . . play a central role in the construction of social and political reality.” The market metaphor proved virtually irresistible in the public arena and led Congress to defer to market forces to “reform” the financing of health insurance in the United States.