As Congress enters the final stretch in pushing forward a health care reform bill, I have been struck by the fact that during the ongoing debate very few people seem to pose the question of whether access to health care constitutes a human right.  Yet, in many countries around the world, this perspective forms the [...]

CST and Health Care

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | September 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I’ve been guesting at PrawfsBlawg this month and, inspired by a paper that I am in the process of completing about subsidiarity and the response to the economic crisis, have posted about the importance of encouraging decentralization in decision making, including in health care reform.
Writing at Mirror of Justice, Rob Vischer responds, arguing that health care [...]

In what will certainly be the news of the day, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus (D-MT), released his version of the national health care reform bill.
Although there are many interesting provisions in the Baucus Bill, including a requirement that individuals have health insurance coverage, the establishment of a health care exchange, proposed [...]

As I prepare to provide brief commentary on various legislative provisions for a CCH publication that will explain health care reform legislation once it is finalized, I could not help but take notice of this important op-ed. It is by a trio of labor and health economists that ran in the New York Times [...]

It is difficult to watch the video of the various “town hall meetings” and constituent listening sessions that have taken place during the current congressional recess.  The overwhelming feeling engendered by these scenes of screaming faces is a feeling of despair for the future of democracy itself.  After all, town hall meetings hold an important [...]

To open my month as faculty blogger, I would first like to thank my colleague Michael O’Hear, whose dedication to, and work for, the Marquette Faculty Blog since its creation last summer have been incredible.  This is very much one of the major reasons why this project has been so successful and brought so many wonderful [...]

As I’m very, very fond of telling people, I am now a 3L.  A 3L in my last semester, no less.  Actually, I will graduate exactly 100 days from today.  (Awesome.)  So I’ve been reflecting a bit lately on my law school career, and I’ve noticed that there are ways I could have managed parts [...]

Health Care Magnet?

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | January 26, 2009 | 1 Comment

Last January, I published a piece in WI Interest, the journal of the Wisconsin Public Policy Research Institute, arguing that the drafters of Healthy Wisconsin — or any similar program purporting to enact a universal entitlement to health care in a single state — could not constitutionally impose a residency requirement, creating the risk of [...]

In an article in today’s Chicago Tribune, our colleague Paul Secunda suggests that the risks of this happening are higher in the current economic climate.  The article concerns a federal lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleges she was fired because of her husband’s medical bills, which were covered through her employer’s medical plan.  The Seventh [...]

Rick Hills (NYU), one of the more thought-provoking and provocative thinkers over at PrawfsBlawg, has an interesting post on the interaction between the democratic process and the law of ERISA preemption.
His post takes off from the recent ERISA preemption case of Golden Gate Restaurant Association, in which the Ninth Circuit recently held that a [...]

This past Tuesday, the voters of the City of Milwaukee overwhelmingly (68%) approved the sick pay ordinance. Under this ordinance, private employers in Milwaukee must provide paid sick leave to workers, who earn the benefit at the rate of one hour of sick pay for every thirty hours of work.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports:
Employers would [...]

One of the less followed stories during the economic collapse is its potential impact on the employee benefits of employees in the United States.  Not only will workers lose a substantial part of their pensions because of the falling price of securities in their 401(k) accounts, but there might even be a bigger problem [...]

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