The Province of British Columbia (BC) passed the Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act (the “Act”) to allow the government to sue tobacco manufacturers for the costs of providing health care to individuals exposed to tobacco products. Under the Act a given manufacturer could be held liable for a proportion of provincial health …Read more

Section 15 of the Health Insurance Act (HEIA) and s. 11 of the Hospital Insurance Act (HOIA) prohibited Quebec residents from taking out private health insurance for services covered by Quebec’s public health care plan. The two Appellants, Jacques Chaoulli and George Zeliotis, contested the validity of this prohibition.  They alleged that these prohibitions deprived …Read more

The decision addressed three petitions with similar facts. In all three cases, the petitioners were diagnosed with cancer and prescribed a medication not included in the health services basket available under the national health care services (which was prohibitively expensive to purchase individually). By the time two of the petitions came to the Court, however, …Read more

The Health (Amendment) (No.2) Bill of 2004 was referred to the Supreme Court for review. Primarily the Supreme Court was asked to analyse the constitutional validity of the bill. Amendment to Section 53 of the Act imposed certain charges mostly on elderly people with limited means for in-patient treatment by public health services. Further, the …Read more

Applicants filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights alleging that the Moldovan government’s inadequate financing of hemodialysis treatments violated their right to life, caused them significant pain and suffering, and negatively affected their families’ lives. Applicants were a group of patients suffering from liver failure and receiving hemodialysis treatments. They alleged that …Read more

The Petitioners were persons living with HIV. They brought action against the Ministry of Health of Argentina for failing to provide necessary medical treatment guaranteed by the Programa Nacional de Lucha contra el S.I.D.A. (National Programme Against AIDS). Petitioners filed a writ of amparo requesting judicial protection of their right to health and requesting that …Read more

Connor Auton and his three co-petitioners were infant children suffering from autism. Applied Behavioral Analysis or Intensive Behavioral Intervention (ABA-IBI based therapy) was the only known, effective therapy for children with autism, although it remained a somewhat controversial and expensive treatment. Neither the Medicare Protection Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 286, nor the Canada Health Act, …Read more

The National Commission on Benefits of the National Health Treasury (CNS) provided free medical insurance for the elderly. Alejandro Cuba Plaza, a beneficiary of CNS, was diagnosed with “terminal chronic kidney failure” and treated with ongoing hemodialysis at Obrero Hospital. After 52 weeks of treatment, CNS ordered the Director of Obrero Hospital to transfer Plaza …Read more

The petitioner filed a writ of amparo (appeal for legal protection) against the Ministry of Health of Peru. She sought free administration of comprehensive medical treatment for HIV, including both the continuous delivery of necessary medicines and the performance of periodic CD4 cell count and viral load tests upon medical indication and/or the patient’s urgent …Read more

The defendant appealed a decision from a lower court by claiming that § 4(2) of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund Act (the “Act”) violated § 11 of the Estonian Constitution. Under § 4(2) of the Act, a health insurance fund was entitled to collect costs which such fund had incurred upon payment of health insurance …Read more