George Wharton

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing and MSc in International Health Policy. This course is available on the MSc in Health Data Science and MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

This course aims to give students a thorough grounding in health financing policy. It focuses on the health financing functions of collecting revenue, pooling funds and purchasing services, as well as on policy choices concerning coverage, resource allocation and market structure. The course mainly draws on examples from health financing policy in European countries, but the general principles studied apply internationally.

The course provides an overview of key health financing policy issues, including the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of raising revenue for health; the role of private financing mechanisms; the importance of pooling; decisions about whom to cover, what services to cover, and how much of service cost to cover; allocating resources to purchasers, purchasing market structure and the principles of strategic purchasing; the incentives associated with different methods of paying providers; and the issue of financial sustainability.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
2 hours of lectures in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Students will work together in small groups on structured learning activities set by the course leads, ahead of the seminars. There will be a 2 hour revision session held in the Spring Term ahead of the final exams.

Students will receive feedback on formative activities of in-class group work and presentations. Students will sit a mock exam in Winter Term.

WHO, World Health Report 2010 - Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage (2010); E Mossialos, A Dixon, J Figueras & J Kutzin (eds), Funding health care: options for Europe, Open University Press (2002); J Kutzin, Health financing policy: a guide for decision-makers, World Health Organization (2008); T Rice, The economics of health reconsidered, Health Administration Press (3rd edn, 2009).

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period.