HHS 404: Financing Health & Medical Sys

Course Description

The American health care system faces two problems: access to health services and high and rising costs. This course looks at the problems of uninsured citizens as well as the strains placed on health care facilities in providing services for them. Europeans have dealt with problems of access and cost controls through universal health care coverage and the course takes up various models in use today. The course also looks at American health insurance and "managed care" programs such as HMOs and PPOs as methods of providing health coverage as well as controlling costs. The course introduces students to services provided by the government including Medicare, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Students will learn the basics of creating a budget under constraints such as contractual limitations and Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs).