LAW - 719A Health Law: Legislative & Regulatory Process

(2 hrs.)

This seminar will focus on legal analysis and problem-solving in one of the most active and controversial public policy areas - health care. While policy details and substantive law will be an important part of the course, its primary goal is for students to understand the legislative and regulatory processes by which health policy is made and implemented and to prepare them to effectively advocate a particular policy position in those settings. The course will focus on understanding the rules governing the legislative and regulatory processes, developing analytical skills to understand the costs, benefits, and trade-offs of particular policy decisions, and understanding the political and legal dynamics of legislation and agency rulemaking. We will apply these tools to current policy debates in health care law and policy, focusing on the Affordable Care Act (primarily those provisions regulating private health insurance and making changes to the Medicare program) and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.