Law Commons^™

Privacy Rights And Public Families, Khiara Bridges

Khiara M Bridges

This Article is based on eighteen months of anthropological fieldwork conducted among poor, pregnant women receiving prenatal care provided by the Prenatal Care Assistance Program (“PCAP”) at a large public hospital in New York City. The Prenatal Care Assistance Program (“PCAP”) is a special program within the New York State Medicaid program that provides comprehensive prenatal care services to otherwise uninsured or underinsured women. This Article attempts to accomplish two goals. The first goal is to argue that PCAP’s compelled consultations – with social workers, health educators, nutritionists, and financial officers – function as a gross and substantial intrusion by …

Biting The Hands That Feed “The Alligators”: A Case Study In Morbid Obesity Extremes, End-Of-Life Care, And Prohibitions On Harming And Accelerating The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

Obesity, recognized as a disease in the U.S. and at times as a terminal illness due to associated medical complications, is an American epidemic according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), American Heart Association (“AHA”), and other authorities. More than one third of Americans (39.8% of adults and 18.5% of children) are medically obese. This article focuses on cases of “extreme morbid obesity” (“EMO”)—situations in which death is imminent without aggressive medical interventions, and bariatric surgery is the only treatment option with a realistic possibility of success. Bariatric surgeries themselves are very high risk for EMO patients. …

Research To Practice: Medicaid Involvement In Employment-Related Programs- Findings From The National Survey Of State Systems And Employment For People With Disabilities, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Dana Scott Gilmore, Susan Foley

Jennifer Sulewski

This brief analyzes data from ICI's National Survey of State Systems and Employment for People with Disabilities regarding the priority Medicaid agencies place on employment and their involvement in recent policy initiatives.

The Tenuous Nature Of The Medicaid Entitlement, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost

Timothy S. Jost

Though Medicare was from the outset an entitlement under federal law, the status of Medicaid has always been less certain. Arguably, it was the Supreme Court, rather than Congress that first recognized that Medicaid recipients (and providers) could sue the states in federal court to enforce federal Medicaid requirements. A recent widely reported federal court decision, however, called radically into question the continuing existence of a federal Medicaid entitlement. Though this decision has now been reversed, and rejected by other courts, it illustrates the tenuous nature of the Medicaid entitlement, and the need to reconstitute Medicaid as an exclusively federal …

Financial Security Scorecard: A State-By-State Analysis Of Economic Pressures Facing Future Retirees, Christian Weller, Nari Rhee, Carolyn Arcand

Christian Weller

As Americans increasingly worry about their retirement prospects, states play an important and growing role in retirement security policy. States already manage long-term care programs for the elderly through Medicaid. Concerned about the impact of future elder poverty on state and local budgets and their local economies, a number of states are exploring the creation of low-cost and low-risk retirement savings plans for private sector workers who lack access to pensions or 401(k)s on the job. Some states have developed programs to help older workers find work.

This report presents the Financial Security Scorecard, designed to inform state-level stakeholders and …

Equal Protection, Immigrants And Access To Health Care And Welfare Benefits – A 2014 Update, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The introduction of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) led to considerable litigation on the rights of immigrants to welfare benefits and access to health care. There was significant divergence between the approaches adopted by the different courts (both federal and State) based, in part, on the different statutory schemes involved but also on different approaches to equal protection. However, none of the cases reached the Supreme Court so the ‘correct’ approach remained unclarified. In response to the Great Recession and subsequent budget crises, several States have again excluded certain legal immigrants from the scope …

The Obamacare Opportunity: Implementing The Affordable Care Act To Improve Health, Reduce Hardship, And Grow The Economy For All Californians, Jeffrey Selbin, Ann O'Leary, Theresa Cheng, Stephanie Campos, Katherine Adamides, Rey Fuentes

Jeffrey Selbin

Reform Of The United States Health Care System: An Overview, Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

This essay, written for readers unfamiliar with the details of American health law and policy, portrays the essential features of the battle for health reform in the United States and of the law that survived the battle: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The essay summarizes key aspects of the U.S. health care system and how it compares in terms of costs and results with other advanced nations’ systems. The political and legal conflicts leading up to and following PPACA’s enactment are described. The major features of the law, attempting to address problems of access to health care, …

Brief Of Amici Curiae: The Leadership Conference On Civil And Human Rights, Asian American Legal Defense And Education Fund, National Aids Housing Coalition, National Economic And Social Rights Initiative, National Health Care For The Homeless Council, National Law Center On Homelessness & Poverty, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Urban Justice Center And Wild For Human Rights In Support Of Respondents Regarding Medicaid Expansion, In The Supreme Court Of The United States, State Of Florida, Et Al., V. United States Department Of Health And Human Services, Et Al., On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, No. 11-400, Martha F. Davis, Margaret Woo, Risa E. Kaufman

Margaret Y. K. Woo

This amicus brief was filed before the Supreme Court in the Medicaid Expansion portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) litigation on behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and other national organizations concerned with the international human rights implications of the ACA litigation, particularly with regard to race discrimination. The brief first argues that the international context of the ACA is relevant to the Court’s consideration of the law’s constitutionality, noting the many times when Court has taken international law into account in rendering decisions. The brief then chronicles the occasions on which international bodies and …

Equal Protection, Immigrants And Access To Health Care And Welfare Benefits, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The Affordable Care Act’S Preventive Services Mandate: Breaking Down The Barriers To Nationwide Access To Preventive Services, John Aloysius Cogan Jr.

John Aloysius Cogan Jr.

Negotiating Federalism, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan