Introduction to Health Law

3 units

This course will introduce you to the U.S. health care system and the legal issues associated with it. We will begin with an overview of the U.S. health care system, including the Affordable Care Act, the legal challenges to it and attempts to repeal and replace it. We will then examine private, state and federal regulation of the health care system, including ERISA, HIPAA, EMTALA, Medicare, Medicaid, federal fraud and abuse law, tax and antitrust law. The second part of the class will focus on the provider-patient relationship and the legal issues that arise within that relationship. We will discuss life and death issues, such as abortion, the right to die, and surrogate decisionmaking. The class concludes by exploring the ethical issues involved with eugenics, assisted reproduction, cloning, genetics, organ transplantation, and human subject research.