Learning outcomes

To provide the students with an understanding concerning the application of economics to health care.

Contents

1) an introduction to/review of the discipline of economics 2) explanation of some of the special features of health care sector and 3) understanding the organization and comparison of different health care systems. The first topic introduces of some basic economic principles, e.g.: choice, supply, demand, markets, economic models, economic efficiency and opportunity cost. This is followed, in the second topic, by explanations of some of the special features of the health care sector, e.g.: market failure, incentives, justice, equity and agency. The final topic shows how health care is organized in different countries and ways in which comparisons can be made between different systems.

Further information on prerequisites and recommendations

Primariliy for students of the Degree Programme in Health Sciences (Public Health & International Health) and students enrolled on the International Postgraduate Programme in Epidemiology.

Teaching methods

Moodle e-learning environment

Teaching language

English

Evaluation and evaluation criteria

Numeric 1-5.
The course is graded on a scale of 1-5 or failed.

Recommended year of study

1. year autumn

Autumn 2009, weeks 45-47

Study materials

Required reading (relevant sections from):

Morris S, Devlin N, and Parkin D.  Economic analysis in health care. Wiley. 2007.

Recommended Reading:

McPake B and Normand C.  Health Economics. Routledge. 2008.

Jan S et al.  Economic Analysis for Management and Policy. Open University Press. 2005.

 

Further information

Enrolment: Students should register for the course on the internet, at http://www.uta.fi/nettiopsu/. Deadline for registration is 19/10/2009.
Web page https://moodle.uta.fi (for enrolled students)

Belongs to following study modules