Search Results

The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer
Report concerning food safety, the resources required to ensure food safety, and whether federal food safety laws themselves, first enacted in the early 1900s, have kept pace with the significant changes that have occurred in the food production, processing, and marketing sectors since then.
Veterans Medical Care: FY2011 Appropriations
This report discusses the FY2011 appropriations process for funding the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides benefits to veterans through three major operating units, including the VHA.
Veterans Affairs: Presumptive Service Connection and Disability Compensation
The purpose of this report is to examine the very complex and sometimes controversial policy issue of establishing presumptive service connection. The material in it is based in large part on VA’s “Analysis of Presumptions of Service Connection,” and IOM’s “Improving the Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process for Veterans” reports.
Health Insurance: A Primer
This report provides information about Health Insurance where people buy insurance to protect themselves against the possibility of financial loss in the future. Americans obtain insurance in different settings and a variety of methods.
U.S. Response to the Global Threat of Malaria: Basic Facts
This report outlines basic facts related to global malaria, including characteristics of the epidemic and U.S. legislation, programs, funding, and partnerships related to the global response to malaria.
TRICARE and VA Health Care: Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
This report addresses key questions concerning how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) affects TRICARE and VA health care.
U.S. Response to the Global Threat of Tuberculosis: Basic Facts
This report outlines basic facts related to global tuberculosis (TB), including characteristics of the epidemic and U.S. legislation, programs, funding, and partnerships related to the global response to TB.
Public Health and Medical Emergency Management: Issues in the 112th Congress
This report summarizes key issues in domestic public health and medical preparedness and response, and discusses selected federal programs by citing other CRS reports and sources of additional information.
Immigration Policies and Issues on Health-Related Grounds for Exclusion
This report discusses the criteria that foreign nationals must meet before admission to the United States, including the reasons why a foreign national might be denied admission, most particularly on health-related grounds. This report discusses such issues in relation to the recent outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 ("swine flu") virus, and how the outbreak has affected various government agencies, such as the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This report also discusses efforts to confront and address such issues on a legislative front.
Mental Health Parity and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
This report provides a brief background on mental health parity and the policy discussion around parity in health insurance coverage; an overview of federal mental health parity law prior to the enactment of the ACA; and an analysis of the impact of the ACA.
Mental Health Parity and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
This report provides a brief background on mental health parity and the policy discussion around parity in health insurance coverage; an overview of federal mental health parity law prior to the enactment of the ACA; and an analysis of the impact of the ACA.
Suicide, PTSD, and Substance Use Among OEF/OIF Veterans Using VA Health Care: Facts and Figures
This brief report addresses three relevant topics that affect veterans: suicide, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders.
DNA Databanking: Selected Fourth Amendment Issues and Analysis
This report looks at how the practice of DNA database programs, which have been looked at favorably by Congress, are in possible violation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. It looks at how the databases' legality has currently been holding up in court, as well as how new advances and revelations in the science of forensic analysis and databanking may have potentially significant legal implications.
Title X (Public Health Service Act) Family Planning Program
This report discusses the Family Planning Program, Title X of the Public Health Service Act, through which the federal government provides grants for voluntary family planning services.
Emergency Response: Civil Liability of Volunteer Health Professionals
This report discusses the patchwork of federal and state laws that operate to protect volunteers, which can include volunteer health professionals (VHPs), and those laws that trigger liability protection only for VHPs — with a focus on some of the midwestern states in addition to the Gulf region.
Mandatory Vaccinations: Precedent and Current Laws
This report provides an overview of the legal precedent for mandatory vaccination laws, and of state laws that require certain individuals or populations, including school-aged children and health care workers, to be vaccinated against various communicable diseases. Also discussed are state laws providing for mandatory vaccinations during a public health emergency or outbreak of a communicable disease.
Mandatory Vaccinations: Precedent and Current Laws
This report provides an overview of the legal precedent for mandatory vaccination laws, and of state laws that require certain individuals or populations, including school-aged children and health care workers, to be vaccinated against various communicable diseases. Also discussed are state laws providing for mandatory vaccinations during a public health emergency or outbreak of a communicable disease.
Neglected Tropical Diseases: Background, Responses, and Issues for Congress
Over the past decade, global health has become a priority in U.S. foreign policy, more than tripling U.S. funding for such efforts. This report discusses neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), a group of 17 diseases that are found primarily among the poorest people in 149 countries and territories. NTDs are an important focus of U.S. global health assistance and may come under scrutiny as the 112th Congress debates spending levels for ongoing global health programs.
Back to Top of Screen