Good Law | Bad Law

It’s ok to discriminate? Well…. Not exactly. Well…..Maybe. Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Elizabeth Weeks, co-author of a new book called “Healthism: Health-Status Discrimination and the Law” and Professor of Law at the University of Georgia. Professor Weeks joins the show today to talk about healthism, discriminating on the basis of health status. Aaron and Elizabeth discuss what healthism means, what it looks like in practice, and, most importantly, when companies can and cannot discriminate based on a person’s health-status. If a person smokes at home, should they be penalized at work? What if the employer provides that employee health insurance? How about if someone is overweight? These are just some of the questions Elizabeth addresses in today’s episode and in her new book. Professor Weeks explains the differences between acceptable and unacceptable healthism practices and takes us through several examples of each. It’