In this article, we discuss the public health provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). We first set forth a framework to identify the key reforms that are needed for a robust public health system. These include workforce and infrastructure investments. We then assess...

The Netherlands is an early mover in healthcare liberalisation. It has a dual policy towards competition enforcement in the sector: not only the general competition rules (the prohibitions on cartels and the abuse of dominance, and merger control) but also rules of sector specific competition...

This essay, written for an international readership, concisely connects the public policy goals underlying U.S. health care reform to the structure of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, and identifies some of the constitutional, legal, and political considerations that will...

This Article argues that federal health care reform may induce employers to redesign their health plans so that low-risk employees retain employer-sponsored insurance (“ESI”) but high-risk employees opt out of ESI in favor of insurance available on the individual market. It shows that such a...

With comprehensive health reform stalled, there is growing pressure to enact more modest health insurance reforms. These efforts have an understandable practical and political appeal. Denials of coverage, cancellations of policies, preexisting condition exclusions, lifetime caps on benefits, and...

As presidential candidates debate health reform, the expression “Medicare for All” (“M4A”) is on repeat, yet few appear to understand precisely what Medicare is or what M4A would mean. Even more striking is that Americans are vigorously debating health reform when the ACA – President...

An economic crisis, sky-rocketing healthcare costs, and millions of Americans without health insurance combine to bring to the public square not only the possibility of a meaningful debate but the political perfect storm that might unearth entrenched partisans and bring about meaningful...

Two federal judges now tell us that the federal health law's individual mandate is unconstitutional. Three others disagree, and soon we will start to hear from appellate courts. But what if we put the legal arguments aside for the moment and focus on the real question: what happens to health...

Director-General Margaret Chan recently called the WHO overextended and unable to respond with speed and agility to today’s global health challenges. Given the importance of global health cooperation, few would dispute that a stronger, more effective WHO would benefit all. In this commentary,...

One of the polarizing issues in the current health reform debate is whether a public option should be incorporated in the final legislation. While the program is favored by the President and most congressional Democrats, the idea is overwhelmingly opposed by Republicans. This discord has given...