Spring 2027

Introduction to Health Policy in the United States

Introduction to US health policy examining government roles in health care provision and regulation, covering economics, outcomes, quality, disparities, and special topics like the ACA.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Tony Lo Sasso

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.89 GPA, 93.8% A/AB (n=97 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.57 GPA, 79.0% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.74 GPA, 84.5% A/AB (n=97 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the basic organization and financing of the US public health and health care systems.

  • Explain the biological, social, environmental, and economic determinants of population health.

  • Discuss factors behind rising costs and approaches to health reform.

  • Begin to develop skills in the policy analysis process as it relates to health policy.

  • Analyze the effects of health policy at the local, state, and national level.

  • Analyze special topics in health policy.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
PUBAFFR 201 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.74 GPA, 84.5% A/AB (n=97 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

TONY LO SASSO is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1500
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.89 GPA, 93.8% A/AB (n=97 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.57 GPA, 79.0% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.74 GPA, 84.5% A/AB (n=97 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Economics of health care, including financing, access, workforce, markets, and government failures.
  • Special topics including risky health behaviors, aging, mental health, and the Affordable Care Act.
  • Biological, social, environmental, and economic determinants of population health.

Skills

  • Critical thinking about public and private health issues using the policy analysis process, and articulating and communicating policy positions.
  • Analyzing the effects of health policy at the local, state, and national level.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PUBAFFR 201 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Health Policy in the United States

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:826:025942",
    "course_id": "PUBAFFR 201",
    "course_uid": "course_77d6431c1419f34efde3e756",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025942",
    "source_subject_id": "826",
    "title": "Introduction to Health Policy in the United States",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "78af379627284d8605d42602f50a1b9f240a2411c017f20c6c745b95bef7025b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}