This course will explore social aspects of health, illness, and the health care system in American society. Along the way, we will explore such issues as: why health and wealth are so closely related in what is viewed as a “land of opportunity”; why patients’ race, gender and social status affects the kinds of diagnoses and treatments they receive; how health professionals and patients make life-and-death decisions; why increasing numbers of social problems, such as children’s “bad” behavior in the classroom, come to be defined as diseases; and why the U.S. leads the world in spending on healthcare while Americans’ health lags behind that of most other industrialized nations; and what can be done to resolve this pattern.