Request Information

Apply Now

A Note From Dr. Dhruv Khurana On His EMPH Fall Quarter Course: Microeconomic Theory of Health Sector

Dr. Dhruv Khurana poses with a group of nine of his UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Executive MPH students in his UCLA class, "Microeconomic Theory of Health Sector," standing close together in front of a teal wall. The group consists of men and women, smiling and looking at the camera. Dr. Dhruv Khurana is the third person from the left in the back row, wearing a dark suit. To the left of him is student Alfonso Iniguez wearing a black and yellow UCLA Bruins t-shirt and a baseball cap. And on the far left is student Blake Owens wearing a dark jacket and smiling. The rest of the group consists of seven female students, some of whom are wearing Halloween costumes or novelty headbands. Student Veronica Tayo, in the front, is wearing a bright yellow shirt, another woman in the center, Isabelle McShane, has pink circular mouse ears, and a woman on the far right, Suini Torres, has grey cat ears. Wei Zhao is wearing light blue medical scrubs. The overall mood is joyful and collegial, reflecting a group of students and their instructor.

26 Nov A Note From Dr. Dhruv Khurana On His EMPH Fall Quarter Course: Microeconomic Theory of Health Sector

Posted at 16:44h in News by

Dr. Dhruv Khurana shares his thoughts on his Microeconomic Theory of Health Sector class, as EMPH Fall Quarter 2025 comes to a close.

I am inspired by my UCLA Executive Programs in Health Policy and Management colleagues to share a quick reflection on this Fall quarter in my Microeconomic Theory of the Health Sector course (Executive MPH).

I submitted final grades yesterday, and I’ll say without any qualifiers: every single policy memo submission exceeded expectations. That level of consistency is rare, and it reflects real work, not luck.

Students tackled some of the toughest issues in today’s landscape: vaccine “infodemics,” access to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, Medi-Cal expansion for low-income adults, post-Dobbs abortion access, precision medicine, consumer genomics, wildfire smoke and health costs, Proposition 1 and California’s mental-health bond, the fentanyl + xylazine wave, and value-based care redesign under ACO REACH 2026. Serious trade-offs, handled with clarity.

Teaching this course required flying from NYC to LA every other Saturday. I made that commitment because the kind of rapid, candid discussion this course requires works best when we can build a tight rhythm together. We worked through elasticity, asymmetric information, clinician decision-making, incentives, and all the moments when the economically optimal answer doesn’t sit comfortably with a healthcare or public health leader. That tension drove our best conversations.

What impressed me most was the mindset. Balancing economics with public health welfare is as much a humanitarian act as it is a technical one. This cohort showed up ready to hold both truths at once. They stayed open-minded, challenged assumptions, and engaged with the trade-offs honestly, instead of tip-toeing around controversial issues.

We ended the final lecture in full Halloween spirit – costumes, laughter, and a reminder that leadership and levity are not mutually exclusive.

(The photo is missing a few who stepped out before we thought to capture the moment.)

I’m grateful for the effort they invested and proud of the clarity they brought to some difficult material. A strong finish to a meaningful quarter.

Onward.

__

HPM M236 – “Microeconomic Theory of Health Sector” is taught in the first year of the Executive MPH program, covering the economics of how patients choose, providers respond, and markets succeed or fail.