Teaching Health Policy in an Economic Framework to Non-Majors

Abstract

A policy course requires a set of evaluation tools to explore the effects of proposed and existing policy initiatives. This paper offers an economic approach for teaching health policy to students who are not economics majors. The author provides a model that uses a graduate-level elective course as an example. In this course, an economics “boot camp” is used to provide a short, intensive overview of principles of economics. Next, two comprehensive health economics applications are used for a transition from economics principles to health policy analysis. In the balance of the course, economic concepts are integrated into evaluations of four health policy goal areas: access, cost, quality, and market interventions. A discussion of the methods for applying this design to other graduate and undergraduate policy courses for non-economics majors is also included.