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Populations and the Law: The Changing Scope of Health Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Daniel M. Fox
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Extract

Changes in the scope of health policy in the United States are creating opportunities and obligations for lawmakers and the lawyers who advise them. These changes are the result of a new politics of policy for the health of populations. The new politics is connecting areas of policy that, because they have had separate histories, are governed by distinct, usually uncoordinated laws and regulations.

The subject of the new politics of health policy is what the Iowa Senate President, speaking in a plenary at the 2003 conference on Public Health Law in the 21st Century, called the “quality of life, what the people think is important.” An increasing number of leaders in general govemment–people who run for office and their staff–have practical reasons to make policy that acknowledges the expanding scope of what their constituents define as health policy.

Type
Commentary
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , Winter 2003 , pp. 607 - 614
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2003

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