Last modified: 22 Jul 2026 13:42
This course takes an international perspective on the function and performance of health care systems. Students will learn why and how governments commonly intervene in the market for health care. Health care systems can vary in the way they raise revenue (e.g. taxation, health insurance), reimburse providers (e.g. hospitals, doctors) and offer patients choice. Students will evaluate the equity and efficiency implications of these options using real world examples and drawing on the experience of their own health care systems.
| Study Type | Postgraduate | Level | 5 |
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| Term | Second Term | Credit Points | 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
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This course will use economics and the concept of market failure to develop understanding of why and how governments intervene in the market for health care. It will consider equity and efficiency as possible objectives of health care systems, and consider how the different models of finance and provision meet these objectives. The course applies the concept of demand to the consumers of health care and examine the effects of policies such as user charges and patient choice. It introduces the student to different ways of raising revenue for the financing of health care and consider the effects of these health care financing mechanisms on efficiency and equity. The materials use the concept of supply to develop understanding of how hospitals, doctors and others respond to incentives, and how the way that we pay for them affects how much they provide and what they provide. Throughout the course, students actively learn by applying the material to their own experience of health care systems and other real world health care systems.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 30 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 70 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Formative | Weighting | ||
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback | ||||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Conceptual | Evaluate | Identify potential health policy responses to market failure. |
| Procedural | Evaluate | Evaluate health policy responses to market failure using real world examples. |
| Conceptual | Understand | Understand how markets work and the characteristics that help them work well. |
| Procedural | Apply | Apply economic concepts to understand why markets may fail in health care generally and specifically in your own health care system. |
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