Health Care Reform

  • Read more: Upcoming Event: 11/01/12 Obamacare on Trial – Book talk and panel discussion with Einer Elhauge
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    Upcoming Event: 11/01/12 Obamacare on Trial – Book talk and panel discussion with Einer Elhauge

    Obamacare on Trial Book talk and panel discussion by Einer Elhauge, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (and founding director of the Petrie-Flom Center) Panelists: I. Glenn Cohen, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School Abigail Moncrieff, Boston University School of Law (and former PFC fellow) Sanford Levinson, University of…

  • Read more: Florida’s Constitutional Amendment on Healthcare: Why It Still Matters after the Supreme Court’s Healthcare Decision
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    Florida’s Constitutional Amendment on Healthcare: Why It Still Matters after the Supreme Court’s Healthcare Decision

    By Katie Booth This November, Floridians will vote on whether to amend the Florida constitution “to prohibit laws or rules from compelling any person or employer to purchase, obtain, or otherwise provide for health care coverage.” Similar constitutional amendments are on the ballot in Alabama and Wyoming and have already been adopted in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Ohio.…

  • Read more: Using the Taxing Power for Public Health
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    Using the Taxing Power for Public Health

    By Scott Burris In a Perspective in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, Michelle Mello and Glenn Cohen, both professors at Harvard, write about the prospects for using the constitutional Taxing Power to adopt innovative laws to advance public health objectives.  Cueing off the Supreme Court’s decision in the Affordable Care Act litigation, Mello…

  • Read more: Quality Control on the Back-End via the ACA and on the Front-End via Tort Litigation
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    Quality Control on the Back-End via the ACA and on the Front-End via Tort Litigation

    By Vickie J. Williams I am back after a brief hiatus for the Jewish holidays. L’Shanah Tova to all my readers who have just celebrated the Jewish New Year. The first Monday in October is, of course, a special day for all of us legal eagles–the Supreme Court is back in session. The other significant thing…

  • Read more: Would you rather medical school train your PCP to have good hands or a good bedside manner?
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    Would you rather medical school train your PCP to have good hands or a good bedside manner?

    By Katie Kraschel Last week NPR covered a story highlighting how medical education is morphing in order to adapt to the unmet demand for primary care physicians driven (at least in part) by the increased access to primary care that will be ushered in under the ACA.  It may be surprising to some to learn…

  • Read more: Will ACA Create a Doctor Shortage–And If So, What Should We Do About It?
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    Will ACA Create a Doctor Shortage–And If So, What Should We Do About It?

    By Jennifer S. Bard Being in my native land of Connecticut reminds me that Mark Twain is famously, if inaccurately, quoted as saying that everyone talks about the weather but no one ever does anything about it.  Nowhere is this concept more true today than in the handwringing over the coming shortage of physicians following…

  • Read more: ACA Litigation – Oklahoma’s “Federalism Unit” Piles On
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    ACA Litigation – Oklahoma’s “Federalism Unit” Piles On

    By Nicole Huberfeld We Who Follow ACA Litigation will continue to be in business.  [On September 19], Oklahoma’s Attorney General sought leave to amend the state’s original complaint regarding the individual mandate.  Now the state claims that the tax subsidies offered to those qualifying for financial assistance to obtain insurance through the exchanges are impermissible. …

  • Read more: The Use of Electronic Health Records Is Increasing Medicare Billing: Is It Also Increasing the Amount of Care Physicians Provide?
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    The Use of Electronic Health Records Is Increasing Medicare Billing: Is It Also Increasing the Amount of Care Physicians Provide?

     By Katie Booth The New York Times recently reported that the switch to Electronic Health Records (“EHRs”) may be contributing to rising Medicare costs. The Times described two hospitals where the portion of patients billed at the highest reimbursement rate rose by over 40% when the hospitals adopted EHRs. The Times also reported that in…

  • Read more: The Fallacy of Fearing “Industrialized” Medicine
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    The Fallacy of Fearing “Industrialized” Medicine

    By Patrick O’Leary Looking back over last month’s health-related news, two articles published on The Atlantic’s website stand out to illustrate a tension that has received a great deal of focus in Medicare reform circles, and that seems to be a political sticking point for many otherwise promising cost-reduction strategies. In his September 10th article The…

  • Read more: Taking Liberties (and Libertarians) Seriously
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    Taking Liberties (and Libertarians) Seriously

    By Abby Moncrieff First, an uncontroversial statement: Despite academics’ resistance, libertarian arguments played a huge role in the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision. That seems obvious. Chief Justice Roberts and the four dissenters based their Commerce Clause analyses largely on notions of individual freedom, asserting that the federal government should not be allowed to force individuals…