I just got back from the first session of "Health Care Institutions." And something the professor said I think helped to crystallize in my mind a little about what's frustrating about law school. He started to talk through a high-level overview of health care systems and the key elements to be aware of, and a couple of times, when he got to something that sounded interesting -- health care quality, or the doctor-patient relationship, for example -- he added a disclaimer, that this course wouldn't focus much on those issues but instead be about the litigation and regulation. About the law. Of course this isn't a complaint about the professor at all -- it's a law school class; of course I should expect it's going to be about the law. But it seems like the most interesting parts of some of the subjects we can study -- the most compelling pieces of the puzzle, the most engaging angles to look at -- are not the legal ones. I think talking about how to improve patient care is a lot more interesting than talking about the legal regime surrounding managed care health insurance programs. Probably both are worth talking about. As I type this, I realize it's a silly complaint. That if I wanted policy school, I'm just in the wrong place, and how can I really be at all disappointed that *law* school talks about law. I can't. But it's a little underwhelming to sit in a class and feel like the parts of the subject that would be really interesting to learn about are all of the parts that won't be covered, and the parts that *will* be covered sound kind of dry. It's probably just me. Oh well. Looks like a decent class regardless.