Relational Duties, Regulatory Duties, and the Widening Gap between Individual Health Law and Collective Health Policy

Abstract:     
In response to a prominent editorial by Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, Professor Sage explains how a relational approach has impeded health law's ability to effectively govern the American health care system, arguing that health law has traditionally focused on the physician-patient encounter rather than on achieving collective objectives (which he calls regulatory duties). Professor Sage traces health law's relational emphasis to private and public law, professional ethics and bioethics, budgetary and general politics, and health care consumerism. He concludes that four areas of health policy-conflicts of interest in biomedical research, managed care and pay-for-performance, health care transparency and education, and public health-require a more collective regulatory commitment.

Keywords: health law, public law, bioethics, policy, biomedical

JEL Classifications: I10, I18,

Accepted Paper Series