This course focuses on policy issues that affect all health care practitioners. How is the health care system organized? Who pays the health care bill? Why have efforts to enact national health insurance failed? What role does government now play in the U.S. health care system and how do the different levels of government share these tasks? How can government encourage good quality care? By the end of the course, students have an understanding of how the current health care system has evolved and major forces in its evolution.