LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course is aimed at providing students with the essential tools to understand, analyze and compare the characteristics of health systems and the main health policies adopted at regional, national and international levels. At the end of the course, the student will be able to critically evaluate the different types of public intervention in the health sector using tools suitable for making informed choices, in a logic of collective interest and in a perspective of equity and sustainability. Particular attention will be paid to the following topics: governance, aging, chronicity, health and inequalities, Health Technology Assessment.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to apply some of the basic concepts of economics to the analysis of health systems, an area in which decisions are particularly difficult from an economic point of view.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• understand the main reasons for the intervention of the state in the healthcare sector;
• knowing how to describe health systems and compare them with each other;
• use the techniques of HTA (Health Technology Assessment) and economic evaluation, to identify the pros and cons of alternative health interventions;
• acquire the mastery of economic evaluation techniques and of the interpretative tools of socio-health interventions to make informed decisions by reconciling equity, effectiveness and cost containment;
• identify the factors influencing the supply / demand dynamics of health services and the challenges of the future to ensure the economic sustainability of the system;
• use the main databases in the health sector to carry out comparisons and descriptive analyzes;
• understand the principles of management and organization of social and health services with particular reference to the payment schemes applicable to hospital and first aid activities, identifying the criticalities and advantages of the various alternatives.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures and exercises. At least one lecture will be devoted to the debate of a topical issue of particular importance on which students will be asked to confront. In case of an extension of the state of health emergency connected to covid-19, the teaching methods will be specified in Aulaweb.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

• Methods for the economic analysis of health systems
•  The reasons for public intervention in health
•   The role of health insurance: adverse selection and moral hazard
•   The Italian healthcare system
•   The challenges of health systems: demographic aging, chronicity, inequalities, PNRR
•   Allocation, standard costs, tariffs and payment systems of the providers.
•   Health expenditure: drivers, data and comparisons
•   Economic evaluation in healthcare and Health Technology Assessment (HTA)
•   Comparative analysis of health systems

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lecture notes made available through Aulaweb