HHA 524 Health Economics

Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, values, and behavior in the production and consumption of health and health care. The course material will cover a broad array of theories and conceptual models in the field of economics. It will introduce the discipline of health economics; discuss resource constraints, trade-offs, efficiency, and equity. It also provides a framework for thinking about how society should allocate its limited health resources to meet people’s demand/need for health care services, health promotion and prevention. This course provides an introduction to economic analysis in health care. Topics covered include demand for health and health care, the physician-patient relationship, health care labor markets, demand for health insurance, and equity in access to and financing of health care. The course emphasizes the application of the economic theory to the problems of production, pricing, distribution, supply and demand for health and hospital services as public, goods. We start by covering the foundations of microeconomics: supply and demand for goods and services and how the healthcare market deviates from a perfectly competitive market. We then cover the demand for medical care and health insurance. We proceed to the supply of medical care and the behavior of health care providers – physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes. Applications relevant to the Saudi health sector will be analyzed.