Grinnell-in-Washington, D.C.

HUM/SCI/SST 295: Health Care Policy
(Chuck Sullivan) 4 credits, prerequisites: none. Each of us has visited a doctor's office. Yet, as consumers of health care, how well do we know our health care system? In this course, we will take an interdisciplinary approach to learning about the U.S. health care system. First we will study the historical origins of the US system and health care's position as an employee benefit for many, a government program for others, and an elusive goal for far too many citizens. We will also focus on health care from a variety of perspectives by taking advantage of offices and organizations in Washington DC that make and affect health policy from political (efforts to expand access to health care); economic (high costs of care and the growing number of uninsured); ethical (stem cells research, organ transplantation, and rationing of care); social (public health policy and access to health care); and biomedical (new treatments for cancer and development of drugs) perspectives. Finally, we will be in Washington at the right time, perhaps, to witness major reforms in health care promised by both parties in the fall, 2008 presidential election.