Health Policy: Systems & Society - HEA00149M
Module summary
This module examines how societies decide what health policy should achieve, why health and health care are unequally distributed, how health systems are organised and financed, and how policy options can be developed, implemented and evaluated. It integrates perspectives from public health, behavioural science, sociology, politics, health policy and health economics. Comparative health-system examples and policy case studies are used throughout to consider effectiveness, efficiency, equity and the distribution of benefits and costs.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2026-27 |
Module aims
The module provides an understanding of the development, delivery and evaluation of health policy and of the social, behavioural and institutional processes that shape population health. It develops students’ ability to connect theory and evidence to practical questions of policy choice and reform. The specific aims are to:
- develop an understanding of the purposes, values and trade-offs that shape health policy, including population health improvement, equity and efficiency;
- explain how social, behavioural and institutional factors produce patterned differences in health and health-care use;
- compare approaches to financing, organising and regulating health systems and assess their implications for access, quality, efficiency and equity;
- analyse how health policies are developed, implemented and reformed in the context of institutions, interests, power and evidence;
- critically appraise policy interventions and evaluation evidence, including intended and unintended effects and the distribution of costs and benefits.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will be able to demonstrate:
- an ability to explain and critically compare major objectives and values in health policy, including health maximisation, equity, fairness and priority to disadvantaged groups;
- an in-depth understanding of how social determinants, behavioural pathways and characteristics such as socioeconomic position, sex and ethnicity contribute to the social patterning of health and health-care use;
- an ability to compare major approaches to health-system financing, organisation and regulation and assess their implications for access, quality, efficiency and equity;
- a critical understanding of health-policy development and reform, including the roles of institutions, political actors, interests, implementation and evidence;
- an ability to appraise evidence on policy interventions using appropriate concepts of effectiveness, efficiency, equity and evaluation;
- the ability to synthesise theory and empirical evidence and communicate concise, feasible and justified policy recommendations.
Module content
The module follows a cumulative progression from the purposes and values of health policy, through the causes and organisation of health and health care, to policy response, choice and evaluation. Sessions will include:
- the aims of health policy and public health, including population health, equality and equity, fairness, rights and priority setting;
- the social determinants and social patterning of health, including material, psychosocial and behavioural pathways and inequalities by socioeconomic position, gender and ethnicity;
- behavioural science, health beliefs, agency, incentives, social norms and the relationship between individual choice and wider social conditions;
- comparative health-system financing and organisation, including state, market and mixed arrangements, access to care, universalism and inequalities in service provision;
- public-health and health-system responses to inequalities, including targeted and universal approaches and proportionate universalism;
- health-policy development and reform, including institutions, political actors, interests, power, implementation and the use of evidence;
- the comparison of policy options in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and equity, including opportunity cost, distributional consequences and priority setting;
- markets, regulation and commercial interests in health policy, using the pharmaceutical sector as an applied case study;
- methods for policy evaluation, including intended and unintended consequences, the interpretation of evidence and an introduction to distributional approaches to economic evaluation.
Teaching normally takes place within weekly three-hour sessions. Sessions combine formal teaching with seminars, workshops, student participation and small-group work. Around the midpoint of the module, groups give a formative presentation of their proposed poster and receive tutor and peer feedback before submitting the summative group assessment.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 80.0 |
| Groupwork | 20.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 80.0 |
Module feedback
Written feedback for the summative assessment is provided on the standard proforma, within the timescale specified in the programme handbook.
Indicative reading
The module draws on several complementary fields. Students are not expected to read every text in full; weekly guidance will identify the most relevant chapters and articles. The following provide the main cross-module foundations:
Ogden, J. (2023). Health Psychology, 7th edn. McGraw Hill. Selected chapters support the behavioural-science component of the module, including health beliefs, behaviour change, health-care access, stress and gender.
Bartley, M. & Kelly-Irving, M. (2024). Health Inequality: An Introduction to Concepts, Theories and Methods, 3rd edn. Polity. A core text on health inequalities, their causes and their relationship to social class, gender, race/ethnicity and wider political and commercial determinants.
Buse, K., Mays, N., Colombini, M., Fraser, A., Khan, M. & Walls, H. (2023). Making Health Policy, 3rd edn. Open University Press / McGraw Hill. A core text for policy analysis, power, institutions, agenda setting, implementation, evidence, evaluation and values.
World Health Organization (2026). Health system performance assessment: renewed global framework to guide policy-making. An open-access framework for analysing governance, financing, resource generation and service delivery in relation to health-system goals.
Additional recommended sources include:
- Nettleton, S. (2020). The Sociology of Health and Illness, 4th edn. Polity.
- Cookson, R., Griffin, S., Norheim, O.F. & Culyer, A.J. (eds) (2020). Distributional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Quantifying Health Equity Impacts and Trade-Offs. Oxford University Press (selected introductory chapters).
- OECD (2025). Health at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators.
- European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies: Health Systems in Transition reviews and Health System Summaries for comparative country analysis.
Students should also keep up to date with current health-policy developments through the King’s Fund, Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust, World Health Organization, OECD, Department of Health and Social Care, NICE, BMJ, Health Affairs and Health Service Journal. Detailed reading lists will be provided for individual sessions and case studies.