HC - 507 Contemporary Issues in Healthcare Policy

Credits: 3

This course studies American healthcare policy, its origins, and contemporary policy issues in the financing and delivery of healthcare services. The role of legislative committees, bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and major healthcare policies are examined as they have developed from the New Deal to the present. Attention is given to issues that relate to the concepts and/or quality of life and death. This is broadly defined to include AIDS policy, infant mortality, and government regulation of consumer products, occupational safety, and fiscal issues such as prospective payment, national health insurance, and the rationing of healthcare. Primary attention will be given to the legislative and political aspects of these various policy areas, but the unavoidable ethical issues will also be considered.

Prerequisite: none