Economics plays an important role in the design of public policies that address problems in the U.S. healthcare system. Economic theory and analysis can point public policymakers to the underlying causes of problems, help to design policy solutions, and evaluate the effects of implemented policies. This course provides an introduction to the use of economics to address major health policy problems. After a review of the U.S. healthcare system’s general structure and historical development, the course focuses on two major questions: how is healthcare financed, and what drives healthcare costs? In answering these questions, we will examine economic analysis of past, present, and future public policy to improve financial access to healthcare and lower the rate of growth of healthcare spending. A pre-requisite for the course is ECON 101. This course fulfills the Applied Economics requirement for the Public Policy major and counts as ECON elective credit for the Economics major.
This is an experiential learning course in which students will work in teams to conduct research projects related to a pressing health policy issue with real world policy implications and then present their findings to an external audience comprised on members from the public sector, nonprofit organizations, and/or relevant interest groups. With guidance from the instructor, teams will learn about an issue, describe a problem, devise a methodology, and produce results. Teams will then present results in a formal briefing and submit a written report. Completion of this course fulfills the COLL 400 requirement.
While the course theme varies each semester, this course requires students to draw on knowledge from prior courses in their major. For Economics majors, the pre-requisites are ECON 303 and ECON 308. For Public Policy majors, the pre-requisites are PUBP 201, ECON 303, and the second methods requirement (ECON 308, GOVT 301, GOVT 302 or SOCL 353). Students will synthesize and apply prior knowledge to study a problem, conduct original research, and communicate effectively with policy professionals.
In many parts of the U.S., demand for behavioral health professionals, home health aides, nurses and nurse practitioners, physicians, and other types of healthcare workers is outpacing supply. Healthcare workforce shortages can result in delays in care and poor patient outcomes. In this short course, students will learn about the extent of healthcare workforce shortages both nationally and in Virginia, the causes and consequences of healthcare workforce shortages, and various policy solutions at the state and federal level. Several guest speakers will share their expertise and perspectives on the issue. This course has no pre-requisites. It is a one-credit course that can only be taken as Pass/Fail.
Every day people make real-life decisions that affect their health: whether to smoke, whether to buy insurance, and even where to live, among others. They interact with other economic actors in the health care sector like insurance providers, physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes, and the decisions of those actors can affect patient health in important ways. How do health care consumers, payers, and providers make these decisions? Could these decisions be made more effectively?
This course uses economic analysis to study health and health care decisions. It is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the determinants of health, such as medical care, socioeconomic status, health behaviors, environment, and government policy. The second part focuses on behaviors of various actors in health care-related markets, including consumers, payers, health care providers, and other members of the health care workforce. Applications and topics will generally focus on the U.S. health care sector.
A note on the composition of the class: ECON 456 and PUBP 514 are cross-listed, which means class meetings will include students in the W&M Master’s in Public Policy Program and advanced undergraduate students. The content of weekly course readings and expectations for class participation will be the same for both groups of students, but some assignments will differ in ways that will be spelled out in the assignment instructions when posted on Blackboard.