Category: Health Law Policy

Action of Ohio Controlling Board on Medicaid Expansion

kvantassel Leave a comment

According to Professor Wilson R. Huhn of the University of Akron School of Law, the Ohio governor’s action expanding Medicaid in Ohio is valid. He writes:

On Monday, October 22, at the urging of Governor Kasich, the  Controlling Board of the Ohio Legislature voted 5-2 to accept $2.5  billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid in the State of Ohio.  Under the laws of Ohio this action was valid.

The Controlling Board is a state agency created by statute. The agency  has two principal powers: it can transfer funds and authorize purchases  by state agencies, and it can decide to accept federal funding on behalf of these agencies. Section 131.35(A)(5) of the Ohio Revised Code  states: “Controlling board authorization for a state agency to make an expenditure of  federal funds constitutes authority for the agency to participate in the federal program providing the funds ….”

Two advocacy organizations (the Buckeye Institute and the 1851 Center  for Constitutional Law) as well as several Ohio lawmakers have announced that they intend to challenge the legality of the action of the  Controlling Board. They contend that the action of the Board violates  Section 127.17 of the Ohio Revised Code, which provides that the Board  is bound by the intent of the Ohio General Assembly. The challengers  quite correctly point out that both houses of the General Assembly voted not to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid. Governor Kasich  vetoed this bill, but the challengers argue that despite the Governor’s  veto it’s clear that the General Assembly did not want the Controlling  Board to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid.

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Avoiding the Crash: New research on fatality rates for cyclists and pedestrians in distracted driving crashes

Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research 1 Comment

By Jacqueline Jefferson, BS (’14), Temple University Department of Public Health

Today it seems impossible for drivers to keep both hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road, with all the technology that is available to us, temptation is at its best. Somewhere along the road our eyes look down at a text message or our hands wander to program the GPS — both distract us from the task at hand: driving. There are laws being enacted all over the country to curb distracted driving (such as the one just recently passed in Maryland) but, there are other factors in this issue. The question also becomes about whether our roads and communities are protecting pedestrians and bicyclists — in other words, how are we protecting the people who do not have four sides of steel protecting them from injury?

Let’s take a closer look at the problem. A study published this week in Public Health Reports by PHLR grantee Fernando Wilson, PhD, examines victims of fatal distracted driving crashes and shows that fatality rates of motorist victims of distracted driving crashes are falling while fatalities of pedestrian and bicyclist distracted driving crashes substantially increased from 2005 to 2010. Read More

Why the Administration Will Think Twice Before Delaying the Individual Mandate

mlawrence Leave a comment

It has been widely reported that people are having trouble buying healthcare through the online exchanges due to technical difficulties, a situation President Obama addressed from the Rose Garden on Monday, saying “no one is madder than me” and encouraging people to try to sign up by telephone rather than online.  Ezra Klein calls the rollout, so far, a “failure” but says the real question is how long it takes for the exchanges to get running smoothly.

Klein is right about that: it would seem unfair to impose a tax on someone for failing to obtain insurance if they tried but were unable to do so due to problems with the government-run website.  Yet that is what the well-known individual mandate codified at 26 U.S.C. § 5000A(b)(1) says: a taxpayer who goes a month (or more) without health insurance after the effective date must pay a tax penalty.  There is no exception for taxpayers who tried and failed to get health insurance through the exchanges.  Or is there?

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10/22: Globalization and the Future of Health Law: Harmonization or Diversity?

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Co-Director I. Glenn Cohen will give the introduction for this event featuring Belinda Bennett, Professor of Health and Medical Law, University of Sydney.

From its earliest stages, the themes of recognizing rights and managing risks have been constant features of health law debate. More recently, globalization has become an important theme for health law. International human rights law and global public health have, for example, both become important aspects of contemporary health law. In this context, it is no longer sufficient for health law to have a purely national focus. Analyzing these trends in the development of health law, Professor Bennett considers the future development of health law and whether the trend towards globalization will lead to greater harmonization or greater diversity.

Lunch will be provided.

Conference Announcement and Call for Abstracts, 2014 Petrie-Flom Center Annual Conference

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

The Petrie-Flom Center has released the description and call for abstracts for its 2014 Annual Conference: “Behavioral Economics, Law, and Health Policy.” The conference will be held at Harvard Law School on May 2 and 3, 2014, and seeks to address the following questions:

  • Are there features unique to health and health care that prevent individuals, groups, and policymakers from making the best decisions?  What is a “best” decision, i.e., whose perspective should be paramount?
  • What types of barriers exist to rational decision making in the health care context, and what does rational decision making look like here?
  • Is exploitation of framing effects, default rules, nudges, and other elements of choice architecture appropriate when it comes to human health, or is this an area where pure autonomy should reign – or perhaps strong paternalism is needed? Is health policy special?
  • What should policymakers do when there is conflict between outcomes that might be good for individuals but not society more generally, and vice versa?  Where should the nudges push?
  • Which areas of health law, bioethics, and biotechnology policy are most amenable or resistant to manipulation of choice architecture?  When nudges are not plausible, what is the best way to overcome bounded rationality?
  • When might behavioral economics lead to the wrong results for health law, bioethics, and biotechnology policy?
  • How can manipulations of choice architecture be best evaluated empirically, and what ethical concerns might such research raise?
  • What are the most interesting or compelling health law, bioethics, and biotechnology policy nudges we should be thinking about today in the realms of obesity, organ donation, end-of-life care, biospecimen ownership and research, human subjects research, HIV testing, vaccination, health insurance, and other areas?

Please note that this list is not meant to be at all exhaustive; we hope to receive papers related to the conference’s general theme but not specifically listed here.

Abstracts are due by December 2, 2013.

For a full conference description, including the call for abstracts and registration information, please visit our website.

Bargaining Chips

Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research 2 Comments

By Scott Burris

Christopher Robertson recently posted here a semi-facetious suggestion of things that Democrats could ask for once the shut-down and the debt-ceiling dance turns into real bargaining. (How sad that this has to be seen as an optimistic statement.)  That’s a good idea. I think we should all join in populating the health policy wishlist.  Here’s one no-brainer.

Government is being starved, and taxes are going to have to go up somewhere.  There is no kind of tax that is not being hated on by somebody, and so no easy places to go, but there is such a strong case for raising alcohol taxes.  Alex Wagenaar, one of the greatest alcohol policy researchers we’ve produced in this country, makes a fantastic pitch for substantial increases in this short video, which is great for advocacy or teaching use.  In real terms, alcohol prices have not been lower for decades, while each drink comes with a subsidy of nearly $2 in health and health care costs we tax-payers end up paying.

So, Mr. President, how about a federal tax of $1.90 per drink, indexed to inflation.  And if there’s opposition, threaten to leave the government open!

Call for Papers on “Buying and Selling Health Care”

crobertson Leave a comment

The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics plans to publish a symposium issue in Winter 2014 exploring ethical, legal, and clinical issues triggered by the increasing commercialization of health care in the United States. The symposium will address a variety of dynamics present in this quintessentially American medical marketplace, with a particular focus on how commercialism impacts practitioners, patients, and policy makers at all levels.

Papers from any perspective or disciplinary background and concerning any aspect of the “buying and selling of health care” are welcome.

Deadlines and submission instructions below the fold.

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