4 results
Search Results
2. Constitutional rights to health care: the consequences of placing limits on the right to health care in several Western and Eastern European countries.
- Author
-
Den Exter, André, Hermans, Bert, and den Exter, André
- Subjects
- *
CIVIL rights , *MEDICAL care , *TREATIES , *COST control , *HEALTH policy , *COMPARATIVE studies , *CONTRACTS , *ECONOMICS , *HEALTH , *HEALTH care rationing , *HUMAN rights , *HEALTH insurance , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *JURISPRUDENCE , *LEGISLATION , *RESEARCH methodology , *MEDICAL cooperation , *MEDICAL protocols , *NATIONAL health services , *PHYSICIANS , *POLICY sciences , *PUBLIC health , *RESEARCH , *RESOURCE allocation , *GOVERNMENT aid , *PRIVATE sector , *GOVERNMENT policy , *EVALUATION research , *PATIENT selection - Abstract
This paper examines the right to health care. Various expressions of this right may be distinguished. These include both individual rights and social rights which could be based upon international treaties and constitutional rights. They may be found in national health legislation and, in some cases, in jurisprudence. To analyze the consequences of limiting the right to health care, a framework for judicial review has been developed which encompasses these expressions of the right to health care. The framework was used to examine legal and health policy developments in three Western and two Eastern European countries. In Italy and the Netherlands the right to health care is protected constitutionally (but on differing legal bases) while the United Kingdom does not have a written constitution. In contrast, Hungary and Poland have for many years seen the state take responsible for the provision, administration and allocation of health care services and the right to health care was guaranteed theoretically but not in practice because of the lack of (financial) means. However, the Polish Constitution explicitly anticipates possible limitations of the right to health care. What all these countries have in common is a cost containment perspective where the future will bring even tighter limits on what resources patients may consume. Despite differences in legal structure between these countries, where they seem to converge is on the consequences of putting limitations on the right to health care. The courts in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK have formulated conditions drawn from the acceptance that this right has to be judged within the context of limited resources. It may be concluded that finding a compromise between the right to health care and cost containment policies could also be an issue, Eastern European countries will have to face in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1998
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Why the Rich Live Longer.
- Author
-
Seligman, Dan
- Subjects
MEDICAL care ,HEALTH policy ,HEALTH insurance ,WEALTH ,EDUCATION ,SOCIAL status ,PATIENTS ,SOCIAL classes ,NATIONAL health insurance ,HEALTH insurance reimbursement ,MEDICAID ,MEDICARE ,LITERACY ,EMPLOYER-sponsored health insurance ,EMPLOYEE benefits ,DEMOGRAPHIC surveys ,MEDICAL care for older people ,PUBLIC health ,MEDIGAP ,PSYCHOLOGICAL stress ,POPULATION ,DISEASES - Abstract
This article focuses on the health of rich and poor people. One of the great mysteries of modern medicine: Why do rich people live longer than poor people? Why is it that, all around the world, those with more income, education and high-status jobs score higher on various measures of health? If access was the key, then one would have seen the health gap between upper and lower classes to shrink or disappear with the advent of programs like Britain's National Health Service and America's Medicare and Medicaid. In fact, the gap widened in both Britain and America as these programs took effect. Today the standard answer is that inequality itself is the killer. The argument is that low status translates into insecurity, stress and anxiety, all of which increases susceptibility to disease. Psychosocial explanations don't tell us why the health gap would widen when employers and governments provide more health care. Nor do they explain one well-known source of the health gap: the notoriously high rate of smoking in the low-status population. The data on IQ, social status and health present some huge conundrums for policymakers. For years Americans debated what to do for, and about, poor people unable to pay for health care. Ultimately they decided it simply had to be paid for. But now, with money ordinarily not a barrier to medical care, we are discovering another obstacle: "regimen complexity." As this fact of life sinks in, the system will be under pressure to find ways to deliver high-quality care to the low-status population much more simply, understandably--and economically. Not an easy task.
- Published
- 2004
4. History and Health Policy in the United States: The Making of a Health Care Industry, 1948-2008.
- Author
-
Stevens, Rosemary A.
- Subjects
HEALTH policy ,HOSPITAL laws ,HEALTH facility laws ,MEDICAL care ,HISTORY - Abstract
The UK's National Health Service is approaching its sixtieth anniversary, an oppportune time perhaps to consider the case of the United States, where there is no national health service. Federal law requires hospitals to treat those who enter their emergency rooms, but not for free; military veterans are offered care in health facilities supported by federal tax dollars and the national Medicare programme provides government-sponsored health insurance for specified services to those over 65 years of age and to individuals certified as disabled. However, Medicare does not provide health services, which are predominantly purchased in the private sector. This article considers the history of American health care over the past 60 years, reflecting the diverse ways in which health care is embedded in the economy, politics, power structures and culture of the United States and discussing what it is like to have a health care industry without having a national health service or universal health insurance. The article concludes that, since the Second World War, the United States has been successful in achieving highly specialized, valued, life-improving health care for most--not for all--members of the population, but at a huge and rising cost. Notable achievements have been produced by the public-private mix of the American health enterprise. However, broad questions of social class, illness, insurance and the burden of payment for health care remain in a society with widening divisions of the population by socio-economic class, education, health literacy and computer skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.