ECO 305 Health Economics

Prerequisites: ECO 102 and MAT 115 or MAT104 or instructor’s permission.

This course studies how to apply microeconomic tools to analyze health and medical care issues. We start with the special features of healthcare as a commodity, the demand for health and for medical care services, the economic explanations for the behavior of medical care providers and the functioning of insurance markets. Then our discussions will touch on pharmaceutical industry, and technological innovation and diffusion in health care. We will also be examining the role of and economic justification for government involvement in the medical care system. Finally, we will use the tools we have learned to compare different healthcare systems in the world and review and analyze various proposals for health care reform in US.

Credits

1 Course Credit