This course is seminar based, discussing historical and current health policy issues and their impacts. We will introduce the health policies mainly in the U.S. and Taiwan; but we will also cover global health topics. The course design is twofold. The first part discusses health care systems, such as the public insurance structures in the U.S. and Taiwan, health care reforms, and the long term care systems. The second part introduces health behavior related topics from the economic perspective, including the prescription drug market, the effects of smoking and drinking age regulations on health, the factors and consequences (education, employment, crime, etc.) of risky health behaviors, and the impact of environment on health.
Many of the readings analyze the policies from statistical and economic perspectives, including the supply and demand sides of policy interventions, utility maximization, Pareto-Optimality, etc. Students will also be introduced to theories of policy analysis, such as policy making processes, policy objectives, and program evaluation. The course intends to combine the policy analysis theories with practical health policy examples. Students will not only be introduced to concrete health policy examples from the readings and discussions but will conduct research in analyzing health interventions in their term paper.