Synopsis
920:210
Sociology of Medicine and Health Care

This 3 credit course addresses two general issues in medical
sociology: the distribution of health and illness, and the
organization of the US health care system. In the first half of
the course, we ask why different groups in the population have
different rates of health and illness - who gets sick, and why.
We cover concepts of health and illness, epidemiology, stress,
social support, epidemics, and bioterrorism. In the second half,
we explore the complex, chaotic, and inadequate US health
care system. We cover the organization and economics of
health care, health care professions, managed care, health
insurance, the rationing of health care, and selected foreign
health care
systems.