Health Law and Policy Commons^™

The New Retiree Health Vebas, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Granted tax exempt status since 1928, Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs) have received considerable attention since the fall of 2007 when General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler reached separate landmark agreements with the United Auto Workers union pursuant to which the companies agreed to contribute billions of dollars to VEBAs in exchange for transferring their retiree health care liabilities to the VEBAs. Specifically, General Motors agreed to contribute $31.9 billion while Ford agreed to contribute $13.6 billion, and Chrysler agreed to contribute $11 billion. Sometimes referred to as "defeasance" VEBAs, these "new," "stand-alone" retiree health VEBAs, differ significantly from traditional VEBAs …

Case Note: Golden Gate Restaurant Association V. City And County Of San Francisco: Setting The Stage For Supreme Court Review Of The Most Important Preemption Matter In The History Of Erisa, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 995 (2008), Joshua Waldbeser

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Baby Ka-Boom! Coming Developments In Erisa Litigation Due To Social, Demographic, And Financial Pressures From The Baby Boom Generation, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1037 (2008), Craig C. Martin, Matthew J. Renaud, Douglas A. Sondgeroth

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Virtues Of Medicare, Jill R. Horwitz

Reviews

Most of us look forward to a heaven where people don't get sick. But if they do, health care would be traded among fully informed patients and providers in perfectly competitive and frictionless markets. In that perfect world, sick citizens simply shop for doctors the way they shop for other consumer goods. The better doctors, like the most elegant hotel rooms and fanciest cars, would cost more than inferior doctors. Patients would consult their utility meters and, with appropriate attention to discounting over an infinite lifetime, choose accordingly. After each treatment, the patients would know the quality of their outcome …

The Vesting, Modification, And Financing Of Public Retiree Health Benefits In Light Of New Accounting Rules, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1147 (2008), John Sanchez

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Risk Governance And Deliberative Democracy In Health Care, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I argue in this article that the concept of risk-centered governance is the best theoretical paradigm for understanding health law and the health care system. Over the past 20 years, an insurance-inflected discourse has migrated from the purely financial side of the health system into the heart of traditional medicine - the doctor-patient relationship. Rather than focus on doctrinal strands, I argue that scholars should analyze the law of health care as a set of governance practices organized around managing and allocating financial, as well as clinical, risk.

Over the same period, the body of law that structures most private …

A Gift Worth Dying For?: Debating The Volitional Nature Of Suicide In The Law Of Personal Property, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Suicide poses difficult and foundational problems for the law. Those who most highly value personal autonomy, those who believe in the inviolability of human life, and those who remain uncommitted on end-of-life issues, all must settle challenging questions about suicide before advancing upon the more complex terrain of physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and infanticide. And the way in which a society fashions legal responses to suicidal choices reveals much about the society's cultural commitments and legal assumptions.

The bodies of insurance law, tort, and health care law are also among those areas of the law in which lawmakers reserve special exceptions …

Book Review - Uninsured In America: Life And Death In The Land Of Opportunity, Elizabeth Pendo

Book Reviews

Health care reform tops our national policy agenda, ranking second only behind Iraq as the issue that the public wants the 2008 Presidential candidates to address. This is no surprise, as health care spending represents nearly one out of every six dollars spent in the national economy, costs continue to climb, and health insurance is increasingly hard to get, keep, and afford. The numbers are staggering, and numbing. Most of us have heard that 46.5 million people were without insurance for the entire year in 2006, and nearly 89.6 million people were without insurance for some period during 2006 or …

(Debate) Medicare: Did The Devil Make Us Do It?, D. A. Hyman, Jill R. Horwitz

Articles

In this lively and creative debate, Professors David Hyman and Jill Horwitz argue about the virtues and vices of the federal Medicare program. As some predict a bleak future for the American’s government’s ability (or inability) to continue paying for Medicare as the population ages, this debate shows that there is genuine disagreement about the severity of the problem. In his Opening Statement, Professor Hyman offers a satirical letter to the Devil from one of his demonic servants, describes the Medicare program through the lens of the seven deadly sins. Arguing that Medicare’s faults are represented in each sin, the …

Patients As Consumers: Courts, Contracts, And The New Medical Marketplace, Mark A. Hall, Carl E. Schneider

Michigan Law Review

The persistent riddle of health-care policy is how to control the costs while improving the quality of care. The riddle's oncepromising answer-managed care-has been politically ravaged, and consumerist solutions are now winning favor This Article examines the legal condition of the patient-as-consumer in today's health-care market. It finds that insurers bargain with some success for rates for the people they insure. The uninsured, however, must contract to pay whatever a provider charges and then are regularly charged prices that are several times insurers'pricesa nd providers' actual costs. Perhaps because they do not understand the healthcare market, courts generally enforce these …

The Tragedy Of The Human Commons, Ronen Avraham, K. A. D. Camara

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Offsetting Risks, Ariel Porat

Michigan Law Review

Under prevailing tort law, an injurer who must choose between Course of Action A, which creates a risk of 500 (there is a probability of .1 that a harm of 5000 will result), and Course of Action B, which creates a risk of 400 (there is a probability of.] that a harm of 4000 will result), and who negligently opts for the former will be held liable for the entire harm of 5000 that materializes. This full liability forces the injurer to pay damages that are five times higher than would be necessary to internalize the risk of 100 that …

The Past, Present And Future Of Health Care Reform: Can It Happen?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 767 (2007), David Pratt

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Secrets, Lies & Erisa: The Social Ethics Of Misrepresentations And Omissions In Summary Plan Descriptions, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 731 (2007), Alison Mcmorran Sulentic

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Process Is Due In The Adjudication Of Erisa Claims?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 811 (2007), Mark D. Debofsky

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Health Care Choice Act: The Individual Insurance Market And The Politics Of "Choice", Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

The Health Care Choice Act of 2005 (HCCA) aims to reform perceived problems in the individual market, and is touted as part of the solution to the problem of the uninsured. It purports to allow individuals who are not eligible for or cannot afford group coverage to purchase an individual policy in and from any state. If passed, the HCCA would allow health insurers to offer individual policies of insurance from any state without being required to comply with the laws of the insured's own state. Its proponents claim that it would lower the cost of individual health insurance by …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Fluconomics--Preserving Our Hospital Infrastructure During And After A Pandemic, Vickie Williams

ExpressO

Influenza pandemics occur regularly. The deadly Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 infected more than 25% of the United States population, and killed 2.5% of those infected. Virtually all experts agree that it is not a question of if another influenza pandemic as deadly as the Spanish flu will occur, but a question of when. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the direct and indirect medical costs in the United States associated with a “medium-level” influenza pandemic would range from $71 billion to $167 billion.

Although public health officials are rapidly implementing pandemic preparedness plans on both the …

“It’S The [Tort System], Stupid:” Consumer Deductibles; How To More Equitably Distribute The Risks Of Medical Malpractice And Adequately Compensate Victims Without Statutory Damage Caps., Bradford Luke Ledbetter

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Massachusetts Universal Health Insurance Takes Bold New Step, Susan E. Cancelosi

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

"For It's One, Two, Three Strikes, You're Out . . .", 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 493 (2006), Kaycee Hopwood

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Great Vanishing Benefit, Employer Provided Retiree Medical Benefits: The Problem And Possible Solutions, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 785 (2006), Larry Grudzien

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Systems Analysis Help Us To Understand C.O.B.R.A.?: A Challenge To Employment-Based Health Insurance, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 753 (2006), Alison Mcmorran Sulentic

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Resolving Medical Malpractice Claims In The Medicare Program: Can It Be Done?, Eleanor D. Kinney, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

There is increasing interest in an integrated approach to patient safety and medical liability among policymakers. We have proposed Medicareled malpractice reform that would provide Medicare beneficiaries with better safety, improved communication in the event of error, preservation of therapeutic relationships, timely settlement, and fair compensation at a lower administrative cost. Disputes in the reformed system would be adjudicated by Medicare's existing administrative appeals system that would work together with Medicare's quality improvement regulation and payment policy to reduce errors and compensate injured patients.

Despite the laudable rationale for Medicare-led malpractice reform, important issues attend the constitutional and statutory authority …

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

An Economic Assessment Of Damage Caps In Medical Malpracitce Litigation Imposed By State Laws And The Implications For Federal Policy And Law, Paul Wazzan

ExpressO

Many states have implemented laws which limit non-economic (e.g., pain and suffering) damages as a result of medical malpractice. These laws are seen by proponents as reducing medical malpractice insurance costs and preserving access to health care – especially for lower income individuals. Opponents believe that individuals are harmed through being prevented from seeking a full measure of redress for medical malpractice incidents, by reducing access to the court system, and that these laws simply enrich insurance companies and doctors.

Federal lawmakers are currently studying the potential effect of uniform medical malpractice damage limits at the national level. It is …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Learning The Wrong Lessons From "An American Tragedy": A Critique Of The Berger-Twerski Informed Choice Proposal, David E. Bernstein

George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series

This paper is a critique of Margaret Berger and Aaron Twerski, “Uncertainty and Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert”, forthcoming the Michigan Law Review. Berger and Twerski propose that courts recognize a cause of action that would allow plaintiffs who claim injury from pharmaceutical products, but who do not have sufficient evidence to prove causation, to recover damages for deprivation of informed choice. Berger and Twerski claim inspiration from the litigation over allegations that the morning sickness drug Bendectin caused birth defects. Considering the criteria Berger and Twerski suggest for their proposed cause of action in the context of Bendectin, it appears …

Consumer-Directed Health Care And The Chronically Ill, John V. Jacobi

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Insurance plans with consumer-controlled spending accounts are advocated as tools for reducing health costs and empowering consumers. This Article describes their recent development and argues that they are likely to fail. Instead of focusing on the small number of consumers with chronic illnesses who account for the bulk of health spending they focus on the majority of relatively well consumers. This Article proposes market-based and regulatory changes focused on high-cost patients. To best serve cost and quality goals, health finance responsibility should be divided between consumers and their employers for predictable and routine costs, and government for chronic and catastrophic …