Can Health Care Law and Policy Be Guided by Basic Values?: The Crucial Role of Perfectionist Solidarity

Abstract

Against the background of continuing national debate over health care law and policy, this Article addresses questions of fundamental justification. Health care law and policy arrangements are often defended in terms of one form or another of the idea of equality. This Article contends, however, that no conception of equality can adequately serve as the primary or most crucial justificatory value underlying a health care system. The most promising candidate for such a role is, instead, what the Article introduces and describes as the value of perfectionist solidarity.