Goal: Technological innovation offers more and more advanced new therapeutic options, while the pressure on health financing decision-makers is increasing, and sustainable financing of healthcare became one of the major challenges of the OECD member states. The course will provide basic insights about how health economic analysis contributes to the long-term sustainability of healthcare expenditure, via the interdisciplinary evaluation of the economic impact of new technological innovations in healthcare. Students will learn the basic definitions and concepts of health economics, discuss and analyse problems related to health policy, health care financing from the perspective of health economics. The course promotes critical thinking and teaches students how to solve emerging problems on the market of health care from an economic point of view, and how to evaluate health policies, public health programs as well as regulations using the economic toolkit.
Course description: The course covers the following topics: characteristics of the health care market; demand for health care; market failures on the health care market; health insurance; market failures on the health insurance market; equity in health care financing; methods to analyze and make cross-country comparisons of health care expenditure. Students will also understand the key economic challenges of global healthcare systems and health markets.