Emerging Parallels in the American Health Care and Legal-Judicial Systems

Deals with the problems of discrimination when health care priorities are set, by examining parallels in the American health care system and the legal-judicial system. It suggests that, by defining legitimate health care needs, society can eliminate the need to ration necessary care. Such needs can be defined using carefully developed coverage rules, rather than the informal rules currently in place, in conjunction with the already-existing due-process methods for interpreting and implementing those rules. This work could become a basis for cooperative studies between RAND's Institute for Civil Justice and RAND Health.