Health Economics

ABOUT THE COURSE: The proposed course titled ‘Health Economics’ is unique in the NPTEL and other MOOC platforms. This has a coverage of latest nuances in healthcare emphasizing issues and policies of India and developing countries. This enables readers with a strong conceptual and theoretical explanations. This has incorporated latest large-scale datasets, use of statistical packages and real-life examples for the analysis. The course has included the coverages of the top cited referred books as well as the syllabus of topmost institutions in the world.INTENDED AUDIENCE:BA (Hons.) B.Sc. Economics, B.Tech, Public health, Biotech M.A./M.Sc. EconomicsINDUSTRY SUPPORT: Consultancies, Research Organizations, KPMG, Deloitte, PWC, etc.

Week 1: Introduction• Overview, Structure, and beneficiaries,• Concepts and Terminology in Health Economics• Understanding Health as Economic Good• Economics of Health vs Economics of Healthcare• What makes Health different from other economic goods: Arrow's perspective

Week 2: Demand in Healthcare• Utility and health• Demand for Health care• Measuring price sensitivity with elasticities• The Grossman Model• The Grossman Model and health disparities

Week 3:Supply in Healthcare• Labor market for physicians; Hospital Industries• Production and Costs of Healthcare - I• Production and Costs of Healthcare - II• Supply induced demand• Profit Maximization models

Week 4:Equity and Health• Defining Equity and Equity in Health• Need and Challenges of Equity Redistribution- Theories• Equity and Debate about new economic paradigm• Equity in health Financing and Distribution• Measuring Equity in Health Care access with Examples
Week 5:Financing and Insurance in Health Care• Financing Health care; Patient payments• Uncertainty and Health Insurance• Information Economics in Health: Adverse Selection• Information Economics in Health: Moral Hazard• Uncertainty and Welfare in Medical Care (Arrow’s Contributions)

Week 6:Behavioral Health Economics• Prospect Theory: Expected Utility Theory• Prospect Theory: Framing; Loss Aversion• Prospect Theory: Implications for health economics• Time Inconsistency and Health: Discounting• Behavioral welfare economics

Week 7:Economics of Health Systems• Health Systems• Tax and Social health insurance mechanisms• Private financing mechanism• Health systems around the world• Future Challenges to Health Care Systems

Week 8: Theory and Principles of Economic Evaluation• Defining Economics Evaluation and its theoretical foundation approaches• Economic foundation of Economic Evaluation: Cost Benefit Analysis• Economic foundation of Economic Evaluation: Cost Effectiveness Analysis• Economic foundation of Economic Evaluation: Cost Utility Analysis• Decision rules for different approaches of Analysis

Week 9: Economic Evaluation in Application to Health and Health Care• Monetary Valuation of Health• Non-monetary Valuation of Health• Methods for estimating cost and gains of Economic Evaluation & Role ofDiscounting• Applied approaches to Economic Evaluation and dealing with Presence ofUncertainty• Use of Economic Evaluation in Decision making

Week 10:Health Efficiency• Concepts of efficiency• Data Envelopment Analysis• Data Envelopment Analysis in hospital services• Potential and limits of efficiency measurement• Solved Numerical
Week 11: Application of Micro and Macro Indicators of Healthcare• Micro indicators, data sources and methods of collection• Macro Indicators and data sources and methods of collection• Applied health econometrics• Health data handling packages- Open Source• Health data handling packages- Licensed

Week 12: Public Health and Policies• Introduction to Public health: Definition, function, role of public health system strengthening• Healthcare provisioning and responsiveness• Socio-economic disparities in health- global perspective• Indian Health System: organization and governance• Indian Health Status: reforms, status. challenges and opportunities