Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Finding A Cure In The Courts: A Private Right Of Action For Disparate Impact In Health Care, Sarah G. Steege

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

There is no comprehensive civil rights statute in health care comparable to the Fair Housing Act, Title VII, and similar laws that have made other aspects of society more equal. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI served this purpose for suits based on race, color, and national origin for almost four decades. Since the Supreme Court's 2001 ruling in Alexander v. Sandoval, however, there has been no private right of action for disparate impact claims under Title VI, and civil rights enforcement in health care has suffered as a result. Congress has passed new legislation …

Making Willing Bodies: Manufacturing Consent Among Prisoners And Soldiers, Creating Human Subjects, Patriots, And Everyday Citizens, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

In March 1944, doctors at the University of Chicago began infecting volunteer convicts at Stateville Prison with a virulent strand of malaria to test the effectiveness and side-effects of potent anti-malarial drugs. According to Dr. Alf Alving, the principal investigator, malaria "was the number-one medical problem of the war in the Pacific" and "we were losing far more men to malaria than to enemy bullets." This refrain would rehearse one of the most productive ways of speaking about prisoner experimentation. The Stateville prisoners became human once again and regained their citizenship and political voice by sacrificing their bodies to the …

Is Ze An American Or A Foreigner? Male Or Female? Ze's Trapped!, Annette De La Torre

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the legal and medical frameworks governing the treatment of transgender and transsexual immigrant detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities are inadequate, leading to violations of their Eighth Amendment rights. It contends that the legal system's reliance on narrow medical definitions and outdated gender roles fails to protect these detainees from unsafe and inhumane conditions. The analysis emphasizes the need for comprehensive reforms to address housing, medical care, and staff training to ensure dignity and safety for transgender detainees.

Racial Inequities In Mortality And Access To Health Care: The Untold Peril Of Rationing Health Care In The United States, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

On February 25, 2007, a 12-year-old African American boy named Deamonte Driver died of a toothache because he did not receive a routine $80 tooth extraction that may have saved him, which was covered by his insurer: Medicaid. Unable to afford $80 or find a dentist that took Medicaid, Deamonte wound up in the emergency room, underwent two brain surgeries, and was in the hospital for six weeks of treatment, which cost approximately $250,000. In the end, Deamonte still died from a brain infection caused by the spread of the bacteria from the abscess in his mouth.

While Deamonte did …

Defeating Health Disparities-A Property Interest Under The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act Of 2010, Dayna Bowen Matthew

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Case Study On Contracted Seasonal Workers And Farm Labor Contractors In The Stockton Area, Cristal Verduzco

Agribusiness

This study was conducted to define the current situation between contracted seasonal workers and farm labor contractors in the Stockton area. Specifically, this study focuses on the perception workers have of farm labor contracted employment. It also addresses the perception farm labor contractors have on the contracting business.

To gather the information needed to compare perceptions, interviews with twelve contracted seasonal workers and two farm labor contractors were conducted in Stockton. The analysis process consists of a detailed account of the problems workers and farm labor contractors encounter in the farm labor contracting business.

The results of these interviews concluded …

Paging Dr. Google: Personal Health Records And Patient Privacy, Colin P. Mccarthy

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employing E-Health: The Impact Of Electronic Health Records On The Workplace, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Electronic Health Record (HER) systems may soon become a fixture in most medical settings. President Obama’s 29 stimulus legislation includes $19 billion to promote their implementation. The sophisticated features and efficiencies of HER systems have the potential to improve health outcomes and enhance patient welfare considerably. However, this emerging technology also poses significant challenges and risks, not the least of which are its workplace impacts. This article provides a first of its kind analysis of the ramifications of HER systems for workers and employers.

The potential effects of health information computerization on the workplace are numerous. Employers may obtain and …

Litigation, Integration, And Transformation: Using Medicaid To Address Racial Inequities In Health Care, Ruqaiijah Yearby

Faculty Publications

Using a public health policy perspective, this article examines the persistence of racial inequities in nursing homes and prescribes a solution to address these inequities. I use empirical data to prove the persistence of racial inequities in health care, analyze the government policies that allow racial inequities to continue, and provide a solution of regulatory integration. Specifically, I propose that civil rights enforcement be integrated with the nursing home enforcement system, which has been aggressively enforced and monitored. There are many strategies that may lead to the adoption of this system. One such strategy is using the Medicaid Act to …

Watch Your Language: A Review Of The Use Of Stigmatizing Language By Canadian Judges, Jocelyn Downie, Michelle Black

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Despite ongoing advances in understanding the causes and prevalence of mental health issues, stigmatizing language is still often directed at people who have mental illness. Such language is regularly used by parties, such as the media, who have great influence on public opinion and attitudes. Since the decisions from Canadian courtrooms can also have a strong impact on societal views, we asked whether judges use stigmatizing language in their decisions. To answer this question, we conducted a qualitative study by searching through modern Canadian case law using search terms that were indicative of stigmatizing language. We found that, although judges …

African Americans Can't Win, Break Even, Or Get Out Of The System: The Persistence Of “Unequal Treatment ” In Nursing Home Care, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Empirical data show that racial disparities in the quality of care provided by nursing homes are a common occurrence, not isolated to Illinois. Nine years after the publication of the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Study (“IOM study”) Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare, which acknowledged continued racial disparities in health care and provided suggestions for the elimination of these disparities, racial disparities still remain. One chief example of the continuation of racial disparities in health care is in the provision of nursing home care.

Decades of empirical research studies have shown that racial disparities in accessing quality …

Litigation, Integration, And Transformation: Using Medicaid To Address Racial Inequities In Health Care, Ruqaiijah Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Using a public health policy perspective, this article examines the persistence of racial inequities in nursing homes and prescribes a solution to address these inequities. I use empirical data to prove the persistence of racial inequities in health care, analyze the government policies that allow racial inequities to continue, and provide a solution of regulatory integration. Specifically, I propose that civil rights enforcement be integrated with the nursing home enforcement system, which has been aggressively enforced and monitored. There are many strategies that may lead to the adoption of this system. One such strategy is using the Medicaid Act to …

A Service Learning Project: Disability, Access And Health Care, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Last summer, I was thinking about a public service project for my disability discrimination law course. I teach the course in fall, and try to incorporate a project each year. At the same time, I was working on a project looking at barriers to health care for people with disabilities. Some of the barriers are well known, such as lower average incomes, disproportionate poverty, and issues with insurance coverage, to name just a few. I was looking at barriers of a different type, however: those posed by physically inaccessible facilities and equipment. This was a new area for me. Like …

Weight Discrimination: Disability Litigation And Public Policy, Tessa Jania

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (“GINA”) is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual’s genetic information, with some exceptions. One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us - the …

Body And Soul: Equality, Pregnancy, And The Unitary Right To Abortion, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

This Article explores equality-based arguments for abortion rights, revealing both their necessity and their pitfalls. It first uses the narrowness of the "health exception" to abortion regulations to demonstrate why equality arguments are needed--namely because our legal tradition's conception of liberty is based on male experience, no theory of basic human rights grounded in women's reproductive experiences has developed. Next, however, the Article shows that equality arguments, although necessary, can undermine women's reproductive freedom by requiring that pregnancy and abortion be analogized to male experiences. As a result, equality arguments focus on either the bodily or the social aspect of …

Insurance Discrimination On The Basis Of Health Status: An Overview Of Discrimination Practices, Federal Law And Federal Reform Options, Sara Rosenbaum

O'Neill Institute Papers

Actuarial underwriting, or discrimination based on an individual’s health status, is a business feature of the voluntary private insurance market. The term “discrimination” in this paper is not intended to convey the concept of unfair treatment, but rather how the insurance industry differentiates among individuals in designing and administering health insurance and employee health benefit products.

Discrimination can occur at the point of enrollment, coverage design, or decisions regarding scope of coverage. Several major federal laws aimed at regulating insurance discrimination based on health status focus at the point of enrollment. However, because of multiple exceptions and loopholes, these laws …

Cutt Ing Funds For Oral Contracept Ives: Violation Of Equal Protection Rights And The Disparate Impact On Women’S Healt Hcare, Rachel V. Rose

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Legislative Updates , Guadalupe A. Lopez

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Preparing For Disaster: Protecting The Most Vulnerable In Emergencies, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Many federal, state, local and private entities are investing significant resources in disaster readiness initiatives. Often disregarded, however, are the special needs of vulnerable populations during disasters. In the context of emergencies, vulnerable groups may include individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, children, the elderly, prisoners, members of ethnic minorities, people with language barriers, and the impoverished. The fate of the disadvantaged during disasters has received little attention in the legal literature, and this article begins to fill that gap. It examines ethical theories of distributive justice and existing federal and state civil rights and emergency response laws and argues that …

Social Factoring The Numbers With Assisted Reproduction, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In late winter 2009, the airwaves came alive with stories about Nadya Suleman, the California mother who gave birth to octuplets conceived via assisted reproductive technology. Nadya Suleman and her octuplets are the vehicles through which Americans express their anxiety about race, class and gender. Expressions of concern for the health of children, the mother’s well-being, the future of reproductive medicine or the financial drain on taxpayers barely conceal deep impulses towards racism, sexism and classism. It is true that the public has had a longstanding fascination with multiple births and with large families. This is evidenced by a long …

Reproductive Rights As Health Care Rights, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

U.S. legal scholarship concerning reproductive rights has largely revolved around the poles of decisional autonomy, privacy, and equality, with a concomitant a tendency to de-emphasize the medical aspect of abortion rights. The medical approach has been particularly disfavored by feminist scholars, largely due to concerns about undermining the equality rationale for reproductive rights and placing too much power in the hands of physicians. In addition, American constitutional law has tended to treat reproductive-rights cases differently from other cases raising challenges to government restrictions on individuals’ rights to access certain forms of medical treatment, granting heightened judicial scrutiny to the former …

Misinformed Consent: Non-Medical Bases For American Birth Recommendations As A Human Rights Issue, Lisa L. Chalidze

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bah V. Mukasey, Sandrine Dehaeze

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Will The Use Of Racial Statistics In Public Health Surveillance Survive Equal Protection Challenges - A Prolegomenon For The Future, Christopher Ogolla

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hiv Discrimination In Health Care Services In Los Angeles County: The Results Of Three Testing Studies, Brad Sears

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Smoke-Free State Psychiatric Facility Grounds: Is Legislation Necessary And Appropriate To Remove Tobacco From These Treatment Settings?, Maureen Hackett M.D.

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New York City Corporation Counsel: The Best Legal Job In America, Michael A. Cardozo

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brain, Gender, Law: A Cautionary Tale, Carlin Meyer

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Prescription For Racial Equality In Medicine, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

A significant body of evidence suggests that minority race adversely affects the quantity and quality of health care provided to minority patients. Although no one has documented systemic overt racism among health care providers, persistent inequities in the delivery of health care services pose serious problems for patients of color. Ultimately, the medical establishment must confront the reality that African Americans and other racial minorities often do not receive equal treatment in the health care system.

The continued implementation of affirmative action programs as part of the medical school admissions process plays a key role in improving health care delivery …