Resource Center: The Origins of Healthcare Laws

Decency LLC is compiling a list of resources to help the public understand the legislative processes that shape the U.S. healthcare system. Scroll below or search the site to find more information on this topic.

The hope is to continue to update and expand this list over time. Last update: August 20, 2023.

Please feel welcome to reach out and report broken links if information has become outdated. If you are interested in historical information, you can try pasting the outdated link into the search engine here at https://web.archive.org/, which may be able to return snapshots of the linked page on different dates in the past.


Note:

This page can be a starting point for understanding what kinds of resources exist in any given topic area.

Although this information is compiled by DLLC, the company does not have a relationship to the cited sources, has not “vetted” the sources, and is not recommending their use.

DLLC is not a law firm, does not take on legal clients, and is not able to provide advice or tailor guidance to any specific case.

The information and opinions on this site do not include legal advice or the advice of a licensed healthcare provider.

 

Current Sections

  • General Resources

  • Information by Topic

    • Campaign Contributions

    • Healthcare Lobbying

    • The Role of Patient Advocacy Groups

    • Tracking Legislation

    • Who Writes Legislation?

 

General Resources

Link here to a GovTrack case study on “[h]ow a bill actually becomes a law”: https://govtrackinsider.com/how-a-bill-actually-becomes-a-law-in-2020-the-emancipation-national-historic-trail-study-act-768a301974ff

 

Campaign Contributions

Link here to information on campaign contributions from the health sector, maintained by OpenSecrets, an organization that tracks the role of money in U.S. politics: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=H

KHN offers a search tool here for exploring the intersection of campaign finance and the pharmaceutical industry, specifically: https://khn.org/news/campaign/

 

Healthcare Lobbying

Link here to the Health Sector Profile maintained by OpenSecrets, an organization that tracks the role of money in U.S. politics: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/sectors/summary?id=H

Investigative journalism organization ProPublica maintains a database here of who is lobbying on whose behalf: https://projects.propublica.org/represent/lobbying

 

The Role of Patient Advocacy Groups

KHN maintains a database here on donations to patient advocacy groups: https://khn.org/patient-advocacy/#

 

Tracking Legislation

Link here to GovTrack, a legislative information and statistics resource: https://www.govtrack.us/

 

Who Writes Legislation?

Link here to the Legislative Influence Detector, a tool to identify matching text across documents and, thus, influences on legislation: http://www.dssgfellowship.org/lid/