Health Law, Policy and Comparative Health Systems

Students will learn in the Health Law and Policy portion of the class to appreciate the incredible complexity of our health care system, and the ways in which shifting patterns of laws and regulations have structured the medical delivery system. Law and medicine are deeply intertwined, and legal rules and institutions have done much to shape our current health care system. As we work toward health care reform, legal institutions have a similar role to play in streamlining and improving the way in which care is delivered in the United States. The comparative analysis of health systems portion of the course will analyze health systems throughout the world and a number of issues including access to health care services, the quality and cost of those services, how the performance of health systems on these intermediate goals affects overall population health outcomes.  This seminar will analyze the emergence of health systems in a number of high-income (“HIC’s) and low-and middle-income countries (“LMIC’s”). This will include analysis of ways in which legal systems influence the emergence of health systems. In many of these countries, governments and other stakeholders have directed their health systems towards achieving the multiple goals embedded in the broad framework of Universal Health Coverage (“UHC”).  This seminar will enable students to identify new questions and seek out new insights concerning the emergence of health systems in their home countries. Students will analyze the relationships between the emergence of health systems directed at achieving UHC and the state of population health outcomes. The seminar also aims to address some very specific questions about the health system in the United States: what are the institutional, legal, and political, challenges of adopting UHC in the United States and Secondly, what are the goals and purposes of the health system in the United States and how does this affect the patterns of relationships among stakeholders in United States.