FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL-STATE LAW IN HEALTH CARE: THE UKRAINIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

The article develops a functional framework for social-state law in Ukraine’s health-care sector. It is proposed that such a framework should not be reduced to a list of legal functions but should provide a systemic description of the purpose, tasks, directions and modes of legal influence, as well as potential dysfunctions. The purpose of social-state health law is defined as maintaining social relations in which human dignity, life and health are protected by effective guarantees of access to care rather than by declarative rules alone. Universal tasks include defining the guaranteed package of care, allocating competence, establishing financing rules, standardising quality, protecting patients, ensuring appeal procedures and maintaining system resilience. Directions of influence comprise social, economic, political-administrative and cultural-communicative dimensions, while the modes of influence are regulatory, protective, compensatory, informational and participatory-procedural. Ukraine is interpreted as developing a mixed social-state model combining universal guarantees, targeted support, contractual financing instruments and a significant local-government role. The article systematises dysfunctions such as declarative guarantees, excessive fragmentation, legal uncertainty, territorial inequality, procedural closure, paternalism and shifting risks to patients. A functional passport for regulatory decisions is proposed, linking the problem, objective, rights, implementers, financing, procedures, indicators and risks.