Prof Elias Mossialos COW.4.08

This course is compulsory on the MSc Health Policy, Planning and Financing, MSc in International Health Policy and MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics). This course is available on the MSc in Health, Population and Society, MSc in Social Policy (European and Comparative Social Policy) and MSc in Social Policy (Social Policy and Planning). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course aims to give students a thorough grounding in health financing policy. It focuses on the health financing functions of collecting revenue, pooling funds and purchasing services, as well as on policy choices concerning coverage, resource allocation and market structure. The course mainly draws on examples from health financing policy in European countries, but the general principles studied apply internationally.

By the end of the course students will have:

• a grasp of the economic, political and philosophical concepts relevant to any discussion of health financing policy.

• a good understanding of how financing arrangements affect the achievement of key health financing policy goals such as financial protection, equity in financing and equity of access to health care, incentives for efficiency and quality in the organization and delivery of health services, administrative efficiency, transparency and accountability.

• the skills to critically assess current health financing arrangements and options for reform.

• an overview of key health financing policy issues, including the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of raising revenue for health; the role of private financing mechanisms; the importance of pooling; decisions about whom to cover, what services to cover, and how much of service cost to cover; allocating resources to purchasers, purchasing market structure and the principles of strategic purchasing; the incentives associated with different methods of paying providers; and the issue of financial sustainability.

15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT.

In addition there will be a two-hour revision session in the MT and a two-hour revision session in the ST.

Students will sit a one-hour progress test in the last seminar of term. This will involve writing an essay under exam conditions. Their seminar leader will mark the essay and provide a mark and written feedback by the beginning of the Lent Term.

WHO, World Health Report 2010 - Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage (2010); E Mossialos, A Dixon, J Figueras & J Kutzin (eds), Funding health care: options for Europe, Open University Press (2002); J Kutzin, Health financing policy: a guide for decision-makers, World Health Organization (2008); T Rice, The economics of health reconsidered, Health Administration Press (3rd edn, 2009).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.