Political Economy of Health Policy

Course content

This course aims to provide students with a critical understanding of health and health policy implications of capitalism from a historical comparative perspective. To that effect it bridges two strands of research, namely health sciences and public policy, which both seek to explain and advance health, and health policy at national and global levels, but operate from distinct disciplinary boundaries. Critically engaging with the core theoretical strands in both disciplines, namely the biomedical, and behaviouralist approaches in health sciences on the one hand and the ideası interests, and institutions based approaches in public policy, the course advances a critical political economy approach to analysing contemporary health policy themes such as health inequities, provision and financing of health care, regulation of innovative medical technologies, and global health,