Introductory course that explores the U.S. public policymaking process and its impacts upon the determinants of the population's health status including environmental, socio-cultural, ethnic, demographic, economic, lifestyle, service access and other factors. The course provides an historical overview of benchmark developments in U.S. health care, highlighting significant influences that transformed the industry into its current form. With the incremental evolution of U.S. health policy as the context, the course discusses individual and societal values concerning health and the operation of the political system. Each step of the policymaking process highlights the roles of key players in the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of government. The course identifies and characterizes health care system stakeholders ranging from private citizens to powerful industry lobbying organizations and the means and methods used to influence the formulation, implementation and modification of health policy. The course concludes with a discussion of the characteristics and role of political competence in the U.S. policymaking process.