Economics of Health and Health Care

When I was doing my doctoral research in the area of Health Eonomics several people asked me that What does this Economics in Healthcare mean?” Health economics or Economics of Healthcare is a discipline of economics which is concerned with the association between health status and the related resources assessing the value, behavior, efficiency and effectiveness of various stakeholders in the production and consumption of healthcare. Pertaining to several factors Health Economics has not been studied well in India or in many other developing countries, unike the developed economies.
Learning Objectives:
1. To provide the students a broad understanding about the fundamental economic concepts in the area of health, health care and health policy.2. To equip students with economic theories and logics in order to analyze the behavior of different economics agents at the individual, household, community and institutional (government and non-governmental) levels within the healthcare market frameworks.3. To help them to build rationale and strategies based on the economic valuation of healthcare system and the measurement of efficiency level.4. To learn about the shortcomings of a lowly developed economy to attain best health status and the health and development nexus.5. To understand the healthcare financing mechanism and its evolution.
INTENDED AUDIENCE:Post-graduate students
PREREQUISITES: NIL.
INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Public Health Organizations, Hospitals, Allied Healthcare Providers, Pharmaceutical companies, NGO.

COURSE LAYOUT

Week 1 :Introduction, Consumer Behaviour, Demand and SupplyWeek2 : Elasticity of demand and supply, Theory of ProductionWeek3 :Theories of Cost and Grossman’s Demand for HealthcareWeek4 : Market Imperfections, Healthcare FinancingWeek5 :Health InsuranceWeek6 : Impact Evaluation, Social Determinants of HealthWeek7 : Economic Externalities, Public and Private GoodsWeek8 :Population, Health and Development