Politics of Health Policy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

The aim of this graduate-level course is to provide students with an overview of the politics of health care policy in the United States. The course will review the peculiar economics of health care (especially comparing markets and regulation as alternatives), the history of rising costs and policy implementation, recent Supreme Court decisions and legal doctrines, and then dive into the politics. We will explore why health care reform is such a polarizing area of governmental policy creation (why such vehement differences between liberals and conservatives?), why and whether interest groups have particular strength in influencing that policy, how and why different states make vastly different choices regarding reform, how policy innovations like smoking bans spread, and why the US health care system looks so unique compared across the world. Special attention will be paid to the Affordable Care Act and its evolving implementation at the federal and state levels across the country. Can the ACA ("Obamacare") be effective and a stepping stone to future reforms? Can it be rolled back if Republicans win sufficient numbers of elections, or is it too firmly rooted? While the perspective of the course is firmly rooted in positive political economy, no disciplinary background or special familiarity in health care is required.