OSHER 256 - Medicare For All?

This course will explore a set of topics that are foundational to a clear understanding of health policy in the United States. We will look at overall system cost, how the U.S. compares to and differs from other modern economies; factors governing the demand for health services; social determinants of health and access to health care; geographic variation in the content and quality of care; Medicare, Medicaid, and government support for health spending. We will try to keep a common focus by using each topic to create arguments for and against a single-payer in the United States (Medicare for All). There will be recommended readings, slide presentations, and discussion. It will be more fun than it perhaps sounds at first hearing. The core of the demand discussion is a piece that analogizes health care services to farm yard animal behavior; the core social piece is from the British civil service; and the variation material is from the Dartmouth Atlas, material that is good to look at and startling in what it shows about US hospital care.