Recently, George Consortium member and University of Michigan professor Rebecca Haffajee gave an interview to the Associated Press, addressing issues around opioid companies and litigation:
Read morePublic Health Law Watch Comments on HHS Regulation Proposal: Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights
Public Health Law Watch, joined by our friends at the Public Health Law Center, submitted official comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed amendments to 45 CFR 88, "Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights; Delegations of Authority." Based on our combined expertise in public health law and policy, we offered comments on five main issues: (1) the lack of evidence that these rule revisions are necessary; (2) the absence of consideration for patients who face refusal of care; (3) the potentially dangerous expansion of existing definitions around “conscience protections;” (4) the potential harm these rules will cause for the LGBTQ population; and (5) the detriment these proposals would cause to reproductive health and rights.
Read moreLegal Skills Through a Health Justice Lens: First-Year Northeastern Law Students Work Toward Health, Equity, and Justice for Two Oppressed Groups
We have a really special post today - George Consortium member Jason Potter describes his innovative work as a professor and also the work of his students here at Northeastern University School of Law. These first year law students studied legal skills through a lens of health justice, and turned health justice theory into practice by partnering with non-profit organizations and creating tangible guidance on issues of safe consumption facilities and barriers to health care for transgender individuals.
Read moreThe PORTAL Literature Scan for March
Every month, our friends at the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL) - part of a collaboration between Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital - publish a great list of the best and most interesting studies, policy analyses, and editorials about regulation, therapeutics, and law.
Read moreMedicaid Work Requirements Would Put Very Few People to Work [from philly.com]
The Trump administration recently agreed to let states get tough on Medicaid recipients who don’t work. Kentucky was the first to win approval of a plan to kick those who can work but don’t off the roles, and at least ten other states would like to do the same. Under these plans, in order to maintain coverage, able-bodied adults would have to prove that they are either employed in some form or are actively trying to be.
Read moreThe Promising Potential of Gun Violence Protection Orders
While mass shootings account for just a small fraction of the more than 36,000 lives lost to firearms in the United States every year, these devastating, large-scale events have become not only more frequent but also deadlier in recent years.
Read moreFighting Fire With Lighter Fluid: Trump Administration Housing Policy Proposals Would Exacerbate the U.S. Affordable Housing Crisis, Heightening Health Inequities
Emerging policy proposals from the Trump administration would exacerbate the U.S. affordable housing crisis, heightening heath inequities.
Read moreA Response to "Unintended Consequences: Medicaid and the Opioid Crisis"
Today, Public Health Law Watch sent a letter (both electronically and on paper) to every member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs in response to a January hearing entitled "Unintended Consequences: Medicaid and the Opioid Epidemic." That hearing and its accompanying report presented a slew of misinformation, misleading statistics, and poorly informed conclusions that attempted to blame the current opioid crisis on the expansion of Medicaid. The George Consortium members mobilized to respond with facts and real potential solutions.
Read moreLet's Get Fewer People to Die (from Northeastern Law Magazine)
Guns were never a part of my life. In the Massachusetts suburb where I grew up, my family did not go target shooting for sport and did not keep guns in the home for protection.
Read moreInvoluntary Treatment for Substance Use Disorder: A Misguided Response to the Opioid Crisis [from Harvard Health Blog]
PHLW's Leo Beletsky, Elisabeth Ryan, and Wendy Parmet authored a piece this week on the Harvard Health Blog about why involuntary commitment for substance use disorder should not be touted as a tool in the opioid crisis.
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