Understanding politics is crucial for understanding a health care organization's environment and determining its strategy. Whether through payment structures, coverage plans, safety regulation or simple zoning conflicts, governments shape health care delivery. This course equips students to understand and influence American politics. It presents the basic institutions and political strategies of contemporary health policymaking, focusing on the politics of coverage expansion at the state and federal levels and other current political developments. Major topics will include analyzing the structure and lessons of various federal coverage programs and student-led research into the politics of state health coverage schemes. Students will leave the class with an understanding of the political context in which health care executives operate and the importance of engaging in the political process. Since health care policy is often unpredictably influenced by the broader flow of politics, the course will frame health care delivery in the United States in the context of current American politics.
This class can be taken as an elective or in fulfillment of the law/politics requirement.
HMP685
The politics of Public Health Policy
Winter
term(s)
3 Credit Hour(s)
Instructor(s):
Greer, Scott
Prerequisites: Grad Standing
Policy requires politics: behind every positive or negative decision governments make, there are elected politicians, politically skilled officials, journalists, and other stakeholders. Understanding the world of politics is crucial to influencing and implementing policies for public health. Indeed, it is impossible to understand public health policy outside of its political context. This class presents the basic institutions and politics of contemporary public health policymaking through studies of institutions and contemporary policy debates. Through analysis of case studies including obesity, state health plans, smoking and pharmaceutical regulation, students will explore the influence of politics on the definitions and decisions of public health issues. They will leave the class with an understanding of how politics explains current public health policymaking debates and an improved ability to understand the politics of major public health policy issues.
This class can be taken as an elective, as a BIC requirement, or in fulfillment of the HMP law/politics requirement.
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