Admission requirements
Participation in the seminar is only permitted if the propaedeutic phase has been passed (60 EC).
Description
Health policy frequently makes the headlines and spending on health care accounts for around ten per cent of the GDP in most European countries. Health governance is a complex field due to the multitude of governmental and non-governmental organisations involved in shaping the services delivered. Moreover, the health care sector is facing important challenges, such as the ageing population, the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases, health inequalities, and the introduction of new technologies.
The role of the European Union in health has been diversified and extended over the past decades. One can think of, for example, policy programmes such as Health in all Policies and more recently - and more ambitiously - the European Health Union initiative, which emerged as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This seminar offers a primer into health policy in Europe’s countries as well as the EU. Health is defined broadly: from public health to hospital care and from mental health care to nursing homes. We start by exploring the foundations of health policy from a national and comparative perspective. This means getting familiar with new terms as well as the major ways in which health systems are organised. Afterwards, we move on to discuss the role of the European Union and the impact of its health initiatives in the member states. Along the way, we will also discuss some more general literature on policy analysis and policy learning to help us study health policy in countries and at EU-level.
The seminar provides a highly interactive learning environment. This means that you will get as much freedom as possible to focus on health related topics that are of interest to you. It also means that the participants will contribute to shaping the seminars through, for instance, presentations and student-led seminars.
Course objectives
After completing this course, students:
have knowledge of health systems and health policies at a national and EU-level
can conduct a cross-country comparison related to health policy
can assess the impact of EU-level health policy on national health policy
gained experience with discussing and presenting about health policy related topics and doing groupwork
Mode of instruction
Seminars will take place twice a week. During these seminars there will be several presentations, student-led sessions and other activities that require you to engage actively with the readings and tasks set. Therefore, it is important that you attend the seminars regularly and a participation grade is part of the course assessment. A minimum participation grade of 5 is required to be eligible for a final grade for the course.
Assessment method
The final grade for the course is composed in the following way:
Participation: 10%
In-class writing assignment: 20%
Presentation: 20%
Group project: 50% (with grade differentiation of plus or minus one point based on peer assessment)
In addition to the graded assignments, the course will contain several pass/ fail assignments, such as a student-led seminar, comments on the seminar readings, and a reflection report. A pass for the reflection report is required to pass the course. The other pass/ fail assignments will be taken into account for the participation grade.
A minimum participation grade of 5 is required to be eligible for a final grade for the course. For the other three elements, students can compensate between elements.
A retake for the group project will be offered if the grade before grade differentiation is lower than 5.5.
A retake will be offered for the reflection report.
No retakes are available for participation and the other assignments.
Reading list
We will use a combination of journal articles and (chapters from) books, but you do not need to buy a book for this course. A detailed reading list, including instructions on how to acquire the texts, will be included in the syllabus.
If you already want to get an idea of the literature we will use to discuss EU health policy, you can have a look at the book available through this link
We will be reading substantial parts of this book during the course.
Registration
See Practical Information
Timetable
See 'MyTimetable
Contact
Please feel free to contact the lecturer if you have any questions about this course at
a.a.h.e.van.reuler@fsw.leidenuniv.nl