Justice And Profit In Health Care Law

The issue of justice in the field of health care is becoming more central with concerns over access, cost and provision. Obamacare in the United States and the Health and Social Care Act 2012 in the United Kingdom are key examples illustrating the increasing pressure put on governments to find just and equitable solutions to the problem of health care provision. Justice and Profit in Health Care Law explores the influence of justice principles on the elaboration of laws reforming health care systems. By examining the role played by key for-profit stakeholders (doctors, employers and insurers), it tracks the evolution of distributive norms for the allocation of health care resources in western welfare states. Essentially, this book sheds light on the place given to justice in the health care law-making process in order to understand the place we wish to give these principles in future health care reforms.

The issue of justice in the field of health care is becoming more central with concerns over access, cost and provision. Obamacare in the United States and the Health and Social Care Act 2012 in the United Kingdom are key examples illustrating the increasing pressure put on governments to find just and equitable solutions to the problem of health care provision. Justice and Profit in Health Care Law explores the influence of justice principles on the elaboration of laws reforming health care systems. By examining the role played by key for-profit stakeholders (doctors, employers and insurers), it tracks the evolution of distributive norms for the allocation of health care resources in western welfare states. Essentially, this book sheds light on the place given to justice in the health care law-making process in order to understand the place we wish to give these principles in future health care reforms.

"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Edited by Colleen Flood, Lorne Sossin, and Kent Roach, the collection explores the role that courts may begin to play in health care and how this new role is of crucial importance to the Canadian public and their governments.

This book examines the potential of litigation as a strategy to advance the right to health by holding governments accountable for these obligations. It asks who benefits both directly and indirectly—and what the overall impacts on health equity are. Included are case studies from Costa Rica, South Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

In April 2001, the Prime Minister established the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. Its mandate was to review medicare, engage Canadians in a national dialogue on its future, and make recommendations to enhance the system's quality and sustainability. The 47 recommendations in this report outline actions that must be taken in 10 critical areas, starting by renewing the foundations of medicare and considering Canada's role in improving health around the world.

Since the 1970s health care costs in the United States have doubled, insurance premiums have far outpaced inflation, and the numbers of the uninsured and underinsured are increasing at an alarming rate. At the same time the public expects better health care and access to the latest treatment technologies. Governments, desperate to contain ballooning costs, often see a market-based approach to health care as the solution; critics of market systems argue that government regulation is necessary to secure accessible care for all. The Catholic Church generally questions the market's ability to satisfy the many human needs intrinsic to any care delivery system yet, although the Church views health care as a basic human right, it has yet to offer strategies for how such a right can be guaranteed. Mary J. McDonough, a former Legal Aid lawyer for medical cases, understands the advantages and disadvantages of market-based care and offers insight and solutions in Can a Health Care Market Be Moral? Drawing on Catholic social teachings from St. Augustine to Pope John Paul II, McDonough reviews health system successes and failures from around the world and assesses market approaches to health care as proposed by leading economists such as Milton Friedman, Regina Herzlinger, Mark Pauly, and Alain Enthoven. Balancing aspects of these proposals with Daniel Callahan's value-dimension approach, McDonough offers a Catholic vision of health care in the United States that allows for some market mechanisms while promoting justice and concern for the least advantaged.