U.S. Healthcare Systems and Policy

This course is the fifth Population Health course. Its goal is to continue exploring population health and its importance for medicine, building from prior theory and practice courses and methods courses. The focus of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to critically examine how the U.S. health care system and policy-making apparatus influence health in the U.S. In lectures and small groups, students study the structure of the health system and medical insurance, and the roles of public health, primary care, and medicine in influencing health. How social factors influence the access, cost and quality of healthcare are discussed, with particular emphasis on their relevance to underserved, low income, and minority populations. In concert with skills acquired in other population health courses, students completing this course will emerge with a basic understanding of approaches and resources for health services research.