HCA 602 - The Politics of Health Care (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
This course will approach the politics of health care in the U.S. by examining and analyzing the interests of the major stakeholders in the system of care delivery. These stakeholders will include the federal, state and local governments; hospitals; insurance companies; the pharmaceutical, tobacco, and food industries; organized labor; health providers and professional organizations, the public health movement, and consumer health movements. Among the issues to be considered are financial gain, control of health care resources, and process and power in decision making. The historical conditions that set the stage for the current role of each stakeholder will be discussed. Relationships among the various stakeholders will be assessed as will their contributions to fostering or thwarting universal access to care, equitable health treatment, health promotion and disease prevention, and health research free from bias. At the conclusion of the class, several case studies that demonstrate how politics actually works in the practice of setting health care policy will be presented.