POLS 298 - Health, Law, Politics & Policy

There is no set of legal issues more bound up with underlying social, cultural, and political currents than health law. A principal aim of the course is to give students an appreciation of how these dynamics have influenced law in the health care context. We will examine such topics as the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, abortion, and pandemics, with readings drawn from court cases, policy briefs, and academic analyses. What forces have coalesced to produce health care legislation, and what is the scope of the rights protected? How has the Supreme Court interpreted the right of Congress to regulate health care? What is the status of abortion rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overruling of Roe v. Wade? How have Congress, courts, and administrative agencies interacted to shape not just national health policy programs, but also the government’s intervention into pandemics? The course, which lies at the intersection of health politics, law, and policy, will culminate with the crafting of a health policy brief on a topic of the student’s choosing (or else a traditional research paper of the same length), in consultation with the professor.

Credits 1

Notes
From time to time, departments design a new course to be offered either on a one-time basis or an experimental basis before deciding whether to make it a regular part of the curriculum. Last offered Summer 2023.

Area
Social Science

Division
Social Science

Compass Attributes
Social Science