Global healthcare is in transition. Since 2015, when the United Nations’ member states officially adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, global spending on healthcare has grown significantly. However, low-income countries spent $41 per capita on health, compared to $2,937 in high-income countries.1 At the same time, advancement in technology has introduced new financial pressures, and healthcare labor markets are increasingly under threat.

The Health Economics and Policy online certificate course from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) investigates the challenges facing healthcare and the economic principles that underpin the sector, while exploring policy proposals that could reduce inequality in the system. It’s been designed by faculty from the Department of Health Policy at LSE, which aims to influence and improve how health policy is designed, implemented, and evaluated through multidisciplinary research and teaching. Experts from the Department have made substantive contributions to health planning and delivery on the global stage.

On the course, you’ll gain insight into healthcare financing and universal health coverage, and the complexities of the healthcare labor market. Ultimately, you’ll develop a balanced view of health and social justice, allowing you to assess healthcare’s inequalities and social determinants.

1 World Health Organization (2019).

This course is designed to provide you with the tools to understand the economics of the healthcare sector, and the policy solutions that can be used to address inequality. Professionals engaged in analysis, advocacy, and policy formulation will gain a contemporary understanding of healthcare economics, and its impact on topics including health funding and workforce dynamics. For those in the healthcare sector, this course will provide a global context on the state of the industry. The skills it teaches will prove beneficial to social scientists, public health specialists, and medical staff, whether working in health agencies, governments, or NGOs.

For finance and economics professionals, this course offers insight into the economic challenges facing the healthcare sector. Learners will gain new perspectives on the economics of health insurance financing systems and the healthcare workforce, and how these can impact outcomes across contexts.