Archive for health care
Google’s Decision to Pay Taxes on Benefits to Same-Sex Partners: The Infinite Regress Problem, and Other Fairness Issues
Google, like a small but growing number of other progressive organizations, has announced that it’s going to start paying the income taxes that its employees must pay on the value of the health care benefits that go to their same-sex partners. This is (sort of) welcome news, but it doesn’t completely work. Here’s why:
Say that [...]
That Didn’t Take Long!
Earlier today, I wrote that the right-wing fringe hadn’t expressed opposition to Obama’s humane Memorandum directing HHS to create rules requiring hospitals to respect the decisional autonomy of their patients, by letting them choose their own visitors — even though one major effect of any such rule would be to respect same-sex couples.
Now, blundering in [...]
Not Just for Gays: Hospital Visits and Respect for Autonomy
Last night’s surprise action by President Obama was a heartening and welcome development. In a two-page memo to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Obama requested that the Secretary promulgate rules that will increase the chances that the wishes of lesbian and gay hospital patients respecting visitation and decision-making will be respected rather than ignored. From the [...]
The Woozy Blogger (Questions the Entire Medical Profession)
In light of my usually relentless blogging, I’d guess that my absence for much of the past week came as a surprise. Here’s what happened….
Last Wednesday night, I had no sleep. The kidney stone that I thought I’d passed (with evidence to show for it) seemed to still be plaguing me. So I called the [...]
The Cucinelli Follies, Redux
Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli can’t help himself. Shortly after getting slapped down by his own governor, Bob McDonnell, for directing the state’s universities to rescind whatever anti-discrimination policies they had protecting their LGBT communities, his not-so-inner cultural warrior came out during an interview where he referred to gay and lesbian “acts” as detrimental to society. [...]
Health Care Reform Bill Passes House
In a vote the outcome of which became evident earlier in the day, the House just passed the Health Care Reform bill. The rest will be all Sturm und Drang — in other words, endless fodder for pundits, but with no real surprises or deviation from the outcome.
I made the tragic error of listening to [...]
His Holiness [sic] and the “Pro-life” Canard
I was Catholic, but only by circumstance, and that was a very long time ago. I didn’t so much leave the Catholic Church as I lost interest in all churches and in organized religion, generally. But it should be said that my experience growing up in the stultifying, boring Church didn’t exactly awaken whatever religious feeling [...]
Projecting A Cyber Snowball from my Laptop
Just a few short minutes ago, as the snow began to really pile up and the wind to howl, I hit “send” on the manuscript my seven co-authors and I have been working on for what seems like a decade. (In fact, the project began with a symposium almost two years ago; we signed with [...]
Ringing in 2010: Thoughts on the Right to Die!
Sorry to bring your “Happy New Year” to a screeching halt, but yesterday’s decision by the Montana Supreme Court in a physician-assisted suicide case (Baxter v. State) is too rich a source to ignore. And too personal.
In a case that focused on a nice question of statutory interpretation, the court ruled that a terminally ill [...]
Paul Starr’s Raynes, McCarty Presentation
A recent post discussed Professor Paul Starr’s Raynes McCarty Distinguished Lecture in Health Law, and purported to link to that lecture. Unfortunately, that link was “dead.” In case you’d prefer a live one, it’s now available here (in two parts). It just went up.
It’s more timely than ever, with the Senate’s health care debate heating [...]