Healthism
Health-Status Discrimination and the Law

Examines when and why discrimination based on health status - or 'healthism' - should be allowed, and when it should not.

Jessica L. Roberts (Author), Elizabeth Weeks (Author)

9781107160385, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 November 2018

230 pages, 1 table
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.6 cm, 0.46 kg

'Two of the smartest health law scholars of their generation present a unique take on healthcare discrimination. Healthism is a refreshing examination of both explicit and implicit discrimination mapped to a broad array of legal doctrines. Breaking with other types of discrimination such as racism or sexism, the authors resist an absolutist approach and create a cleverly nuanced approach to differential treatments by suggesting an original and intriguing rubric.' Nicolas P. Terry, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Can an employer refuse to hire someone who tests positive for nicotine or alcohol? Can an airline or movie theatre require overweight customers to purchase two seats? Can a health insurance company refuse to sell policies to those most in need of medical care? Can the government condition public assistance on wellness program participation or work activity? In this illuminating book, Jessica L. Roberts and Elizabeth Weeks consider these and similar questions, offering readers a nuanced analysis of when and why discrimination based on health status - or 'healthism' - should be allowed, and when it should not. They provide a methodology to distinguish desirable health-based classifications from the undesirable, and propose law and policy solutions to encourage the former and limit the latter. This work should be read by anyone concerned with how government does - and does not - regulate based on health.

1. What is healthism?
2. Understanding healthism
3. Limits of antidiscrimination and privacy laws
4. Limits of health insurance law
5. Limits of private law
6. Testing healthism.

Subject Areas: Law [L]