Political Science 397P - ST-HealthCarePol&Inequalty/US

At roughly 18 percent of GDP the United States spends more on health care than any nation in the world but underperforms relative to its peers on a wide range of health indicators. Health care costs leave millions of Americans uninsured, and millions more face the problem of underinsurance because of additional costs that take the form of co-pays and deductibles. Americans also spend more on prescription drugs than anyone else on the planet. These features of the health care system partly account for widening health inequalities between the rich and the poor and the persistent disparities between majority and minority populations. This course offers a political economy lens on healthcare that provides both overview and analysis about the current system, its history, and what the prospects for change might be.