Courses | Columbia Law School

This seminar will consider significant issues related to access to health care in the United States, the barriers to access generated by a variety of factors including poverty, race, gender, and disability, and the explicit and implicit mechanisms by which health care is rationed in this country. Access will be considered in the context of conflicting forces impacting on the system, including economic and market forces, issues of entitlement, rights and privileges, social and distributive justice, and public policy issues related to rationing of care and the utilization of increasingly expensive technological advances in medicine. The course will compare the structure of the health care systems of other countries with the health care system of the United States, the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and how the American system can be improved. The course is open to all students. A final paper will be required and writing credit will be available.