ECO 3090 - HEALTH CARE ECONOMICS AND POLICY

credits: 3.0
Will provide an economic framework for thinking critically about health care and evolving public policies associated with it. Will examine the demands for health care services in the U.S., and where applicable in Canada and Great Britain, from the standpoint of individual consumers. Special attention will be paid to the problems of moral hazard and adverse selection as they impact health markets. On the supply side the course will examine government policies, including private insurance programs and public transfer programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and health care savings accounts. Policy debates will include examining tradeoffs between the public funding of healthcare services and the private provisioning of health care. Will be of interest to students contemplating careers in health care administration-management or medicine, and those interested in economic, social and public policy issues. Objectives: A) Describe the assumptions economics makes about individuals and markets and how those are reflected in health markets; B) Identify the various demographic circumstances leading to differing demand for health and health care supply; C) Analyze how market failures impact demand for health and health delivery systems; D) Explain the concept of insurance and how the various insurance types impact health; E) Analyze the costs and benefits of various health care plans, both privately and government mandated, in the U.S. and other countries. Method of Instruction: Lecture, classroom presentations by students. Method of Evaluation: Tests, homework assignments, classroom presentations of articles and one research paper on the topic jointly determined by the professor and student, and one final exam.

Prerequisite(s): ECO 2010 - PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS