Constitutional, Political, and Legal Influences

Abstract

As shown in Fig. 1.1 of Chap. 1, the myriad influences on the US healthcare policy-making process occur within the country’s constitutional framework. Constitutionalism is used to hold both elected and appointed officials politically and legally accountable for their actions. It involves checks and balances, federalism, separation of powers, rule of law, due process, and the bill of rights. These arrangements require that our leaders listen, think, bargain, and explain to the electorate the reasoning behind the laws they make (Magleby et al. 2006, p. 6). Therefore, because the Constitution orders and shapes the political, policy-making, and legal processes in the country, this chapter appropriately combines the constitutional, legal, and political influences on the health policy-making process. We begin the discussion with the constitutional environment of the United States.KeywordsPolitical CultureHealth Care ReformPolicy ProposalExecutive BranchMedical MalpracticeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.