Public Health Law Blog

Many states allow for license suspension as a punishment for non-payment of fees and fines related to traffic offenses. These suspensions often have significant public health impacts, some of which seem obvious—people need transportation to access medical care and medicines, which of course, has an effect on public health. But a closer look reveals a plethora of other negative consequences that impact public health.  

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is highly regarded as the first piece of federal legislation to recognize the criminal nature of domestic violence and sexual assault.  The law was set to expire on September 30, 2018 and rather than fully re-authorizing it, Congress only extended the VAWA until December 7, 2018. The future of the legislation is uncertain, even as crime statistics and public health impacts illustrate continued need of its protections.

Medical-legal Partnerships (MLPs) integrate lawyers into health care settings to assist with patient care by addressing structural problems that impact health. As a result, MLPs help identify ways in which laws harm population health and perpetuate health disparities. But that is only the beginning: MLP practitioners are also key partners in changing harmful laws and practices.

Recently passed resolutions in the House and Senate recognize the importance, effectiveness and need for trauma-informed care in the existing programs of federal agencies, and encourages federal agencies to adopt a trauma informed approach to their work. The resolutions cite examples of trauma informed practices, programs and policies implemented at the state, tribal and local levels. Many of the examples are from local communities and some involve a legal component.

Good nutrition remains a challenge for most Americans, with less than one in ten consuming the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables daily. Furthermore, significant disparities exist across race, ethnicity, economic status, and geography. The Healthy People 2020 Law and Health Policy project released the first of a series of reports and products this month, highlighting ways law and policy can support healthy eating across the lifespan, and focusing on three areas crucial to health equity:  access, affordability, and demand for healthy foods.

Over the past several months, in the lead-up to our 2018 Public Health Law Conference, we asked Network members and friends what health justice means to you. Your insights, along with a survey of the legal and policy issues impacting health equity, informed the strong and diverse programming for the more than 40 sessions organized for the conference.

With 21,315 reported cases and 35 deaths from measles in 2017, Europe is experiencing a surge in this highly contagious, but preventable disease. The World Health Organization points to low immunization coverage as a major factor for the outbreak, with over 41,000 additional cases so far in 2018. Given that most of the measles cases in the U.S. result from unvaccinated individuals who contract the disease in other countries, this outbreak is concerning in light of declining U.S. vaccination rates.

Differences in implementation and enforcement of certain laws, like housing codes and immigration laws, can lead to poor and sometimes disparate health outcomes among different communities and populations. Medical-Legal Partnerships are uniquely positioned to identify legal failures and gaps and are important partners for public health. Often, patterns in individual health-harming legal challenges reflect a need for population-level intervention.  

States have expanded legal gambling significantly over the last decade and continue to do so as they grapple with budget shortfalls, desperate to raise revenue without raising taxes. All but two states collect revenue through one or more types of gambling. The nature of gambling has changed in recent years, however, with the proliferation of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS). The major DFS companies offer services in 39 states as many regulators have determined that DFS is a permissible skill-based game rather than impermissible gambling (or games of chance). In 2017, the DFS industry collected over $3 billion in user entry fees and generated $335 million in revenues. And now states have the opportunity to further expand permissible gambling—and state revenue—by permitting sports betting, such as wagers on the Super Bowl and brackets for March Madness following the decision in Murphy v. NCAA (May 14, 2018).

In states that have passed mandatory flu immunization for children between six months and five years of age, deaths and hospitalization due to flu have declined. In June, the New York Court of Appeals upheld a New York City Health Code requiring annual flu vaccination for children (ages of six – 59 months) who attend city-regulated child care or school-based programs. The ruling is a significant victory for public health in light of the ongoing legal challenges to mandatory vaccination requirements and childhood vaccination rates.