Seminar: Health Care Policy and Politics

COURSE SYLLABUS: PAD 7600/6600

Seminar: Health Care Policy and Politics

Fall 2008

Professor: Malcolm L. Goggin

Office Hours: Wednesday, 2-4 and by appointment

Phone: 719-207-2751

e-mail:

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course students will learn about the major health policies in the U.S., the main players in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, and the processes by which health policies are made and implemented. The course is practical with an emphasis on defining problems in the health policy arena and offering practical solutions that are politically and economically feasible. The course emphasizes critical thinking skills, group problem-solving skills, and professional presentation skills. Students in this course will engage the issues of cost, access, and quality in in-class workshops over the fifteen-week semester with the goal of formulating solutions to these contemporary problems. Then, with the help of the professor, students will develop a practical plan to implement their proposed solutions, taking the political institutions, actors, and current climate of the times into account. The course will include assigned readings in advance, seminar discussion, in-class workshops, role playing, group problem-solving, and scenario writing, where students use what they have learned in the course to predict future directions of health and medical care policy and politics in the United States.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND REQUIREMENTS: Students enrolled in PAD 6600 are required to attend all class sessions, complete all assignments, AND be vocal and active participants in all sessions. A basic premise of this course is that seasoned administrators need to be able to develop a capacity to make subjective as well as objective assessments of the world about them. Problem-identification and problem-solving are some of the most important things that policy makers and policy managers or administrators do. But it is not enough to be able to define a problem and come up with a solution. The solution must be both economically and politically feasible. Whether as an individual or as part of a group, students enrolled in PAD 6600 must know the politics and economics of health policy as well as the content of alternative policy solutions. Within this context all students are required to be actively engaged in discussions and work independently on health care policy problems facing the nation today.
REQUIRED READING MATERIALS: All PAD 6600 students are expected to read five books in their entirety during the course of the 15-week semester. Students are expected to read one of these books – Thomas Bodenheimer and Kevin Grumbach, Understanding Health Policy-- before the second class meeting, which is August 20.The required texts for this course are:
Thomas Bodenheimer and Kevin Grumbach, Understanding Health Policy (New York: Lange Clinical Medicine, 2001)
Haynes Johnson and David Broder, The System: The American Way of Politics at Breaking Point(Boston: Backbay Books Reprint Edition, 1997).
Carol Weissert and William Weissert, Governing Health: The Politics of Health Policy, 3d. ed. (Washington, D.C.: The JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press, 2006)
Jonathan Oberlander, Political Life of Medicare(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
David Smith and Judith Moore, Medicaid Politics and Policy: 1965-2007 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2008)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
This is a research seminar and as such in this course there are no lectures. Weekly seminars will be devoted to discussion and analysis of health care policy and politics, through the lens of cost, quality, and access.There is a midterm exam but no comprehensive final exam. The final grade for the course will be based on a midterm exam (30%); quality of class participation (20 %); and an oral and written report (50%).
Midterm Exam (30%) The midterm exam is an in-class three hour essay exam on October 15, 2008. It is designed to test a student’s knowledge and understanding of the assigned reading and class discussions.
Class Participation (20 %).Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss intelligently the assigned reading for that week. The discussions will be led by and graded by the professor based on quality of individual participation.Failure to attend class without a doctor’s written excuse will result in a “0” for that portion of class participation.
In-class oral and written individual report (50 %).Each student will give an oral report to the professor and the other students enrolled in the course. The in-class portion of the individual report should take about thirty minutes to present, followed by questions from other students and the professor. A grade for the in-class presentation is based on a formal evaluation by both the professor and by fellow-students. An evaluation form will be distributed during the first weeks of class as a guideline for the oral presentation. The written report should be twenty pages or less in length and follow guidelines distributed during the first weeks of the course. The written report is to be handed in on December 10, 2008. The grade for this project will be based on both depth and quality of research and practical consideration of political and economic climate as well as the professionalism of the oral presentation, which is to utilize the power point software.Failure to prepare and present a report without a doctor’s written excuse will result in a “0” for that assignment.
Students should be aware that GSPA has an academic ethics and paper plagiarism policy posted on the GSPA website.
GRADING
Here are the numerical and letter grades for PAD 5220 for the semester.
A+Over 100 points
A95-100 points
A - 91-94 points
B+88-90 points
B84-87 points
B - 80-83 points
C 70-79 points
F below 70 points
SCHEDULE:
August 13
Orientation and Introduction to Course Procedures and Student Introductions
Reading: No assigned reading for this unit
August 20
Health Policy and Politics: An Overview
Reading: Bodenheimer and Grumbach, Understanding Health Policy (entire book)
August 27
Democratic National Convention: August 25-29
NO CLASS
September 3
The Political Context of Health Policy
Reading: Weissert and Weissert, Governing Health, Introduction and Chapters 1-4
September 10
Federalism and the Health Policy Process
Reading: Weissert and Weissert, Governing Health, Chapters 5-7 and Conclusion
September 17
Medicare’s Policy Development
Readings:Jonathan Oberlander, Political Life of Medicare, Introduction and Chapters 1-5
September 24
Medicare Politics
Reading: Jonathan Oberlander, Political Life of Medicare, Chapters 6 and 7
October 1
Medicaid Policy and Politics: 1965-1990
Reading:David Smith and Judith Moore, Medicaid Politics and Politics,Chapters 1-5
October 8
Medicaid Policy and Politics: 1991-2008
Reading: David Smith and Judith Moore, Medicaid Politics and Politics, Chapters 6-10.
October 15
In-Class Midterm Exam
PAPER TOPIC DUE BY OCTOBER 22
October 22
S-CHIP in Colorado and the Nation
Reading: To be Assigned
October 29
Assisted Reproductive Technology in the U.S. and Abroad
Reading: Selections from I. Blieklie, M. Goggin, and C. Rothmayer, eds., Governing Biomedicine
November 5
Heath Care Reform: Past and Present
Reading: Haynes Johnson and David Broder, The System: The American Way of Politics at Breaking Point, Chapters 1-13
November 12
Health Care Reform: Past and Present
Reading: Haynes Johnson and David Broder, The System: The American Way of Politics at Breaking Point, Chapters 14-24 and Epilogue and Afterword
November 19
Health Care Reform: The Future
Student Presentations: How to Reform the Current Health Care System
November 24-28
FALL BREAK: NO CLASS
December 3
Health Care Reform: The Future
Student Presentations: How to Reform the Current Health Care System
December 10
INDIVIDUAL TERM PAPER DUE

Professor Malcolm Goggin earned his doctorate in political science from Stanford University and has taught in the Stanford University political science department and the department of community and preventive medicine at the Stanford University Medical School. He was also a tenured professor in the department of political science at the University of Houston’s Central Campus and taught public policy and administration in the MPA and Ph.D. programs there and at Michigan State University. He is the author or editor of five books and scores of articles and monographs. Dr. Goggin has been a Fulbright Scholar (University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland), a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a Senior Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at SUNY, Albany. He has also been a visiting professor at the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Dr. Goggin is a Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado-Denver and Health Sciences Center and has taught MPA and Ph.D. students at the Graduate School of Public Affairs since 2005.