Dr Adam Oliver COW 3.06

This course is available on the MSc in Health, Population and Society, MSc in International Health Policy and MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
The course is of great value to those wishing to work as health policy analysts after graduation, be that in academia, industry, government or health care management and practice.

The course offers a thorough understanding of the major issues in the United States health care policy debate. The historical development of the system, the predominant private sector health insurance, the public coverage of 'entitled' groups, the problems of uninsurance, and policies aimed at improving the efficiency and equity of the system will be considered.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of lectures in the ST.

"The health care mess: how we got into it and what it will take to get out", by Julius Richmond and Rashi Fein (Harvard University Press, 2005); "The Politics of Medicare", Second Edition, by Theodore Marmor (Aldine de Gruyter, 2000); "The system: the American way of politics at the breaking point", by Haynes Johnson and David Broder (Little Brown, 1997); "The reform of the 1990s: The United States": Chapter 3 of "Accidental Logics", by Carolyn Tuohy (Oxford University Press, 1999). "The historical logic of national health insurance: structure and sequence in the development of British, Canadian and US Medical Policy", by Jacob Hacker, Studies in American Political Development (1998) 12: 57-130.

Exam (75%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (25%, 2500 words) in the ST.