MPH5220 Introductory health economics
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
MPH5220 Introductory health economics is a level 5, 6-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, offered in 2023 in Semester 1 at Alfred Hospital. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2023
- Semester 1
- Alfred Hospital
- Assessment
- No exam
- 2 tasks
- Workload
- 12 hours
- per semester
This is the 2023 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before MPH5220
Prohibitions
You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.
After MPH5220
No unit lists MPH5220 as a prerequisite in the 2023 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Must be enrolled in a postgraduate course
Overview
This unit provides an introduction to health economics. For many of you, this will be the first time you may have studied economics so we have developed the course with this in mind. We will cover topics including -
- Why is the discipline of economics relevant to healthcare? Key economic concepts such as opportunity costs, marginal analysis efficiency, and the concept of benefit.
- Basic microeconomic tools for health economics including, demand, supply, markets, market failure, and the role of governments.
- The Australian healthcare system from an economic perspective including structure and expenditure.
- The role of health insurance and different funding mechanisms in health care.
- Important public healthcare policy topics from an economics perspective including the reform of Medicare and efficiency in sub-sectors of the healthcare system (such as primary care and hospitals).
Offerings in 2023
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| First semester | Alfred Hospital | Flexible |
Assessment
- 4 short developmental activities40%
- Final Assessment (8-10 min Oral Presentaion and 3,100 words written essay)60%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Define key economic concepts, including efficiency, opportunity cost, utility, costs and benefits.
- 2
Compare health care markets and markets in other sectors.
- 3
Explain the unique characteristics of healthcare which make the application of standard market based economic theory problematic. including the role of governments.
- 4
Explain the role that governments can play when standard economic theory fails.
- 5
Evaluate different health financing methods in terms of created incentives and disincentives.
- 6
Evaluate health care challenges and policies from an economic lens.
Workload and teaching
- Tutorials2 hours
- Applied sessions3 hours
- Lectures1 hours
6 hours of teacher-directed study per week, including a combination of synchronous and asynchronous lectures, videos, zoom sessions, and tutorials.
6 hours per week of self-directed study.
Total per week = 12 hours
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos
- Unit Coordinators
- Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for MPH5220?
MPH5220 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is MPH5220 offered?
In 2023, MPH5220 runs in Semester 1 at Alfred Hospital.
How much work is MPH5220?
The handbook expects about 12 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does MPH5220 have an exam?
No. MPH5220 has 2 assessment tasks and no exam.