1. Chapter 5:
Health Law, Policy,
and Ethics

2. Introduction What Is the Scope of Health Law, Policy, and Ethics?
What Legal Principles Underlie Public Health and Health Care?
What Do We Mean by Health Policy?
How do the Philosophies Toward the Role of Government Affect Health Policies?

3. Chapter 5 Health Law, Policy, and Ethics
Is There a Right to Health Care?
How Does Public Health Balance the Rights of Individuals and the Needs of Society?
How can Bioethical Principles Be Applied to Protecting Individuals Who Participate in Research?

4. Introduction
A new statute and subsequent administrative regulations give only a temporary license to newly licensed drivers prohibiting late night driving, limiting the number of passengers, and prohibiting use of cell phones. You wonder if older drivers are subject to these same regulations and are required to pass a driver’s test.

5. Introduction
You decide not to enroll in the health plan offered by your employer because it seems so expensive and you are young and healthy. Not long after your car is struck by a hit and run driver and you find yourself on the way to the nearest hospital. After stabilizing you as required by law, they transfer you to the public hospital which is the only one in town that will take care of you without insurance. You complain that you have a right to health care but no one seems to respond.

6. Introduction
You hear that a new drug has shown extremely promising results but will not be available for a least a couple of years. You wonder why you have to wait so long to take the newest prescription medicine while your fills up with promotions for the untested ways to enhance your energy, beauty, and sexual performance. You wonder why the Food and Drug Administration seems to have such differing standards.

7. Introduction
You hear that a neighbor has TB and refuses treatment. Can’t they make him take his medicine or at least get him out of your neighborhood you wonder? What if he has the type of TB that can’t be cured with drugs, you ask yourself?

8. Introduction
You hear an advertisement about participating in a new research study. It sounds like you’re eligible so you check into it. You’re surprised to find that even if you participate you may not receive the new drug and won’t even be told which treatment you are receiving. Despite your willingness to take your chances, you’re told that you are not eligible for the study due to conditions that put you at increased risk of developing side effects. Why can’t you participate if you’re willing to take the risks, you wonder.

9. Components of Health Law, Policy, and Ethics
Scope
Examples of issues
Health care
Access, quality, and
cost of health care
Organizational and
Professional
structures for the
delivery of care
Rules governing
Medicare and
Medicaid, as well as
laws governing
private insurance
Hospital governance
and professional
licensure

10. Components of Health Law, Policy, and Ethics
Scope
Examples of issues
Public health
Population health
and safety, including
governmental efforts
to provide services
to entire
populations, as well
as vulnerable groups
Food and drug laws
and procedures,
environmental laws
regulations for
control of
Communicable
diseases

11. Components of Health Law, Policy, and Ethics
Scope
Examples of issues
Bioethics
Application of
individual and
group values and
morals to
controversial
areas
End-of-life care,
stem cell
research,
abortion,
protection of
research subjects

12. Characteristics of Market and Social Justice
Market Justice
Social Justice
Views health care as an economic good
Views health care as a social resource
Assumes free market conditions for health services delivery
Requires active government involvement in health services delivery
Assumes that markets are more efficient in allocating resources equitably
Assumes that the government is more efficient in allocating health resources equitably

13. Characteristics of Market and Social Justice
Market Justice
Social Justice
Production and distribution of health care determined by market-based demand
Medical resource allocation determined by central planning
Medical care distribution based on people’s ability to pay
Ability to pay inconsequential for receiving medical care
Access to medical care viewed as an economic reward for personal effort and achievement
Equal access to medical services viewed as a basic right

14. Implications of Market and Social Justice
Market justice
Social justice
Individual responsibility for health
Collective responsibility for health
Benefits based on individual purchasing power
Everyone is entitled to a basic package of services
Limited obligation to the collective good
Strong obligation to the collective good

15. Implications of Market and Social Justice
Market justice
Social justice
Emphasis on individual
well-being
Community well-being supersedes that of the individual
Private solutions to
social problems
Public solutions to
Rationing based on
ability to pay
Planned rationing of health care