In 1989 the first National Women’s Health Policy was launched in Australia. Now, 20 years later, the Federal Government has announced plans for the development of a new National Women’s Health Policy to address the health needs of Australian women. This editorial examines the role for law in...

This short comment argues that both cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) should be seen as imperfect tools for evaluating health policy. This is true, not only for extra-welfarists, but even for welfarists, since both CBA and CEA can deviate from the use of social...

Disputes about tax-exemption are occurring all over the country. The IRS and CBO are engaged in national studies of non-profit hospitals and community benefits. State governments are considering whether to legislate minimum amounts of charity care in exchange for tax-exemption. Congress is...

Recent events have, once again, catapulted microbes into the forefront of media crisis-reporting. No sooner than the wandering TB-carrier evading the CDC's dragnet fades from our newspapers, (along with the sudden emergence and disappearance of SARS, the threat from Saddam's smallpox, and the...

This article provides the first systematic analysis of the emergence of an embryonic EU lifestyle policy. Despite its limited competence in public health, the European Union has progressively recognized the impact of Non-Communicable Diseases – as prompted by the leading risk factors, such as...

The United States is unique among developed nations in its heavy reliance on employment-based health insurance. The United States is not, however, the only nation in which employers play an important role in the financing of health care. The employer plays an important role in financing health...

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...

The health care system in the United States is undergoing profound changes. Unprecedented demographic, technological, political, and economic shifts have led to new organizational structures, reimbursement systems, and professional relationships in health care delivery. The most commonly used...

Direct primary care is a promising, market-based alternative to the fee-for-service payment structure that shapes doctor–patient relationships in America. Instead of billing patients and insurers service by service, direct primary care doctors charge their patients a periodic, prenegotiated...

This article assesses the potential impacts of climate change on human health, with an emphasis on waterborne diseases. The article also discusses uncertainties associated with establishing causality between environmental change and specific diseases