Mandates: America's Opportunity

Vaccination Week in the Americas: An Opportunity to Integrate Other Health Services With Immunization

Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA) is an initiative of the countries and territories of the Americas that works to advance equity and access to vaccination. The initiative focuses on reaching populations with limited access to regular health services and promotes solidarity among countries. As the Expanded Program on Immunization is one of the world's best-established health programs, integ...

Accommodation Mandates

Contraceptive insurance mandates.

Contraception is a fundamental health care service and a basic public health measure. The ability to plan, start, space, and discontinue bearing children has transformed everyday life for women, families, and communities. Along with other improvements in medical care and public health, it has vastly enhanced women’s autonomy, professional and educational achievement, and emotional satisfaction ...

Eight Americas: A New Definition for “Americas”?

Sam Singer In their essay in October’s PLoS Medicine, Daniel Reidpath and Kit Yee Chan challenge the widely cited link between HIV-related stigma and the spread of the epidemic [1]. This is an important question, given the heavy emphasis on stigma in policies of the World Health Organization, the Joint United Programme on HIV/AIDS, and other public health institutions, but in making their argum...

Implementing employer and individual mandates.

As is true of automobile insurance, a strong case can be made for a mandate that requires individuals to purchase health insurance rather than shifting costs to others. A mandate by itself, however, is likely to be regressive. By dealing with individual needs through the back door, an employer mandate generally keeps costs hidden and raises employment problems, while an employer subsidy will be...