Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
Privacy As A Tool For Antidiscrimination, Jessica Roberts
Privacy As A Tool For Antidiscrimination, Jessica Roberts
Jessica L. Roberts
Traditionally, laws that protect privacy and laws that prohibit discrimination have been considered distinct kinds of legal protections. This Essay challenges that binary on both practical and theoretical grounds. Using the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) as a case study, it argues that lawmakers can use privacy law to further antidiscrimination goals. GINA, which prohibits genetic-information discrimination in health insurance and employment, does more than simply outlaw discriminatory conduct. It also prohibits employers from requiring—or even requesting—their employees’ genetic information. While GINA’s privacy and antidiscrimination protections have previously been viewed as discrete, this Essay reads them in concert, arguing that …
"Healthism": A Critique Of The Antidiscrimination Approach To Health Insurance And Health-Care Reform, Jessica Roberts
"Healthism": A Critique Of The Antidiscrimination Approach To Health Insurance And Health-Care Reform, Jessica Roberts
Jessica L. Roberts
Discussions of health-status discrimination permeated the debate surrounding the 2010 health-care reform legislation, infusing those conversations with the language of civil rights. However, insurance is by its very nature discriminatory. Thus, an antidiscrimination paradigm is not the appropriate normative framework for addressing disparities in health-insurance coverage. This Article identifies an unresolvable tension between the antidiscrimination approach embraced by health-care reform advocates and the private health-insurance industry, which the Affordable Care Act seeks to preserve. The private health-insurance industry has historically disadvantaged individuals based on health status through risk-assessment and cost-sharing mechanisms. Proponents of health-care reform vilified these accepted business practices …