Access to Healthcare

This course covers the law and policy of health care access and financing in the United States. The course will examine, from patients’ perspectives, the various barriers that can impede access to health care and the legal systems that create or seek to mitigate those barriers. Each session will ask students to think critically about what populations are most impacted by a particular barrier, with an eye towards how the barriers impact health outcomes and health equity. Students will explore why these barriers exist, and learn to identify the various policy makers that influence the prevalence of the various barriers. As the course continues, students will begin making connections between interrelated and intersectional barriers that patients experience. Topics include: Medicaid, Medicare, and Marketplace eligibility, coverage, administration, reimbursement, and appeals; consumer protections applicable to health care; anti-discrimination statutes applicable to health care providers, insurers, and public health care programs; clinical and cultural competency; disability rights; prior authorization and managed care practices; and privacy and fears related to seeking care.