Comparative Healthcare Systems

This course describes variations in healthcare delivery systems locally, nationally, and globally as they relate to policy, structure, and finance. Comparisons of systems are made relative to expenditure of resources and outcomes. Students learn about healthcare coverage, access to care, healthcare rationing, provider manpower distribution, and seeking healthcare in foreign countries (medical tourism). The discrepancy between the desirable and the practical is explored, and students are asked to outline and defend a system that they believe is both desirable and practical.