Health Care Systems In Eight Countries

The report includes a selection of eight countries representing the diversity of international experience of both funding and delivering health care. Denmark and Sweden represent the decentralised systems of health care funding and delivery common to Scandinavia. Germany and the Netherlands provide examples of social health insurance systems combined with private health insurance for high-income earners. France illustrates a more centralised model of social health insurance, offering universal coverage and with a mixturc of public, private non-profit and for-profit providers. Australia and New Zealand have predominandy tax-financed systems of health care -with differing degrees of decentralisation and privatisation of provision. The country reports have all been written following a standard template. This identified six key questions to be addressed: - Who benefits and what are the benefits? - Who pays and how much? - Who collects the money and where does it go? - How much is spent and on what? How do patients access services? That are the major challenges facing the health care system? Each country case study stands alone as a summary of the key features of the health care system in that country.

This background paper is part of a larger study on International Differences in Health Care Technology and Spending, which consists of a series of back- ground papers. International Health Statistics: What the numbers mean for the United States was published in November 1993, and International Comparisons of Administrative Costs in Health Care appeared in September 1994. An additional background paper will report on lessons for the United States from a comparison; of hospital financing and spending in seven countries.

Examines the management of health care technology in 8 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the U.K & the U.S. Six technologies (or sets of technologies) -- including evaluation & management efforts & how the technologies diffused -- are presented & compared: treatments for coronary artery disease, imaging technologies (CT & MRI scanning), laparoscopic surgery, treatments for end-stage renal disease, neonatal intensive care, & breast cancer screening. Extensive bibliography for each country. Charts & tables.

A comprehensive and granular insight into the challenges of promoting rational medicine, this book serves as an essential resource for health policy makers and researchers interested in national medicines policies. Country-specific chapters have a common format, beginning with an overview of the health system and regulatory and policy environments, before discussing the difficulties in maintaining a medicines supply system, challenges in ensuring access to affordable medicines and issues impacting on rational medicine use. Numerous case studies are also used to highlight key issues and each chapter concludes with country-specific solutions to the issues raised. Written by highly regarded academics, the book includes countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America.

In 2015, building on the advances of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals that include an explicit commitment to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. However, enormous gaps remain between what is achievable in human health and where global health stands today, and progress has been both incomplete and unevenly distributed. In order to meet this goal, a deliberate and comprehensive effort is needed to improve the quality of health care services globally. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide focuses on one particular shortfall in health care affecting global populations: defects in the quality of care. This study reviews the available evidence on the quality of care worldwide and makes recommendations to improve health care quality globally while expanding access to preventive and therapeutic services, with a focus in low-resource areas. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm emphasizes the organization and delivery of safe and effective care at the patient/provider interface. This study explores issues of access to services and commodities, effectiveness, safety, efficiency, and equity. Focusing on front line service delivery that can directly impact health outcomes for individuals and populations, this book will be an essential guide for key stakeholders, governments, donors, health systems, and others involved in health care.

This book brings together the approaches adopted by eight countries to address the policy issues necessary to provide high-quality and affordable health andsocial care for people suffering from chronic disease.