Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Asst. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Tu/Th 2-3. But I'm usually in at 10b Carow Hall. Call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure.
Catalog Entry:

Econ 496, 895 Health Economics (3:3:0). Prerequisites: ECON 103. Determinants of Health. Supply, Demand, and Institutions of Health Insurance and Care. Evaluation of Market Failure Rationales for Regulation.

Sherman Folland, Allen C. Goodman, Miron Stano, Economics of Health and Health Care, Prentice Hall Business Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-13-565987-6, Sample Price $67.

Charles E. Phelps, Health Economics, Addison Wesley Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-673-99398-1, Sample Price $68.

Joseph P. Newhouse And The Insurance Experiment Group, Free For All? Lessons from the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, Harvard University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-674-31914-1 Sample Price $58.

(You can search for the lowest text price via ClickTheButton.)

For undergraduates: To become familiar with basic facts and issues in health economics, and to be able to make an economically-coherent defense of one's opinions on health policy questions.
For graduate students: To in addition write a coherent research paper in health economics.

• Class Participation Please contribute to class discussions.
• Quizes Four In-Class Quizes will given, roughly every three weeks. Each covers preceeding three weeks of lectures. Quizes and the final are open book, open notes.
• Defended Opinions Four times you will turn in a written defense of your opinions on a health policy question. I have a list of things to keep in mind when writing your defended opinions.
• Research Paper Those who take this class as Econ 895, a graduate class, are required to write a research paper on a health economics topic of their choosing.

1. Should cigarettes or fatty foods be taxed? (Take a position on both questions.)
   • Exploring a fiscal food policy
   • Public Health vs. The Nanny State?
2. Should a Patient's Bill of Rights be passed? If so, what should it include?
   • Bipartisan group renews Patients' Bill of Rights debate
   • House passes HMO reform bill
3. Should anyone be allowed to "practice medicine" on willing patients, or just "doctors" approved by the AMA?
4. You may choose the last topic. Here are some health policy questions you might consider.

• Quizes: 13Feb,13Mar,3Apr,24Apr
• Defended Opinions: 15Feb,15Mar,5Apr,26Apr
• Research Paper: 10May
• Final: 1:30-4:15, May 8.

1. 496: Class Participate 5%, 10% per Quiz, 10% per Defended Opinions, 15% final.
2. 895: 1/2 of grade above items, 1/2 research paper.

Lecture Readings and Sources

On the web page, this links to a page of sources, most of which have links.

Misc Health Links

Yahoo on Health Policy

WebEc on Health Econ

Health Econ Places to Go

HealthEconomics.com

A Vision for Consumer-Driven Health Care Reform