Health care and political systems are deeply intertwined, with implications for the quality and equality of access to health care.

This symposium will explore the political dynamics of health care laws and the way they affect people not only as patients but also as citizens. Health professionals, policy and public health experts, economists, sociologists, and political scientists will draw on comparative politics and policies of the US states—alone and as part of a federalist system—and on international perspectives to explore the relationships between citizens and their health care.