The Politics of Health and Medicine in the United States

Harvard FAS

How does politics shape our health? In this multidisciplinary class, students explore the historical origins of institutions like Medicare and Medicaid, the FDA, and the NIH. We seek to explain the politics of why American healthcare policy differs so dramatically from its peers, with narrowly targeted public programs and a dominant private insurance sector. Students learn how epidemiologists and clinicians today think about social determinants of health, especially racial disparities in care…