HEALTH LAW & POLICY
(LAWI-4190) - 3 UNITS

This course provides students with an overview of health care law and policy, emphasizing themes of access, quality, choice, cost, and equity. Consider the following questions arising from these concerns:

- Are we able to access the health care services, drugs or devices we need? If not, what are the barriers to care?

- Who ensures that we are getting good quality care? What happens if we are harmed due to poor care?

- How much choice do we have in where or from whom we get care?

- How is the cost of providing health care distributed and contained? What are the personal and societal costs of forgoing care? Who bears the burden when health care is not provided?

- How do the answers to the above questions vary based on one's social status or identity, especially as it relates to race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, immigration status, age, disability, socioeconomic status, and religion? How has interpersonal and structural discrimination in health care delivery and financing contributed to poor health outcomes and health inequity?

Students will learn about how these issues are addressed through state and federal laws, including the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), and will be able to identify the competing values and assumptions that inform different legal approaches. Throughout the course, we will center the lived experiences of patients to add social context relevant for understanding patients? health care journeys, and students will have the opportunity to think critically about the role that law and policy play in either advancing or impeding health and equity goals. We will also consider the varied interests and perspectives of key health care actors, including medical and allied health professionals, hospitals and other health facilities, private insurers, public programs (Medicaid & Medicare), and government and private regulatory bodies.

Pass/Fail:
No

Prerequisites:
None