Health Economics and Financing for Developing Countries (PHCM9443)

You may be one of those people who asks yourself, "What does economics have to do with health and health care?" For some people, economics seems quite at odds with fundamental social goals such as  'good health'. The answer lies in the fact that resources are inevitably scarce and choices have to be made about their allocation. Health economics is about the optimisation of health relative to other activities and making choices to use resources in ways that improve health and service delivery within the limited resources available.

Health economics can provide insight into questions like:  

• Which is the more effective method of increasing the uptake of health services: price controls or subsidies? 
• How will the involvement of the private sector in the funding and delivery of health care affect access to it? 
• What are the most cost-effective mechanisms for delivering essential medicines to those living in remote areas? 
• Are out-of-pocket payments for health care a regressive funding mechanism? 
• How should doctors be paid? 

The primary goal of this course is to provide participants with the knowledge, skills and basic economic arguments that are central to discussions about health policy options and resource allocation choices in low and middle income countries.

This course is an elective in the Master of Health Leadership and Management, Master of Public Health and Master of Global Health programs comprising 6 units of credit towards the total required for completion of the study program.