Health Care Systems In Europe And Asia

This book addresses the global need for more comparative studies on health policy and health care systems, given the rise in recent decades of societal aging, modern mass diseases, economic globalization, and resulting permanent fiscal austerity of governments which have fundamentally altered the status quo of health care systems. The book examines the healthcare experiences of the most developed countries in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) and compares these with four of the most important health care systems in Europe (UK, France, Germany and Italy). Focusing on the public health care systems the contributors discuss the rising need for reforms in health care and health insurance administration, delivery systems, financing and overall health care policy strategies, particularly in fast-aging societies in Asia, and highly aged societies in Europe. This book will appeal to students and scholars of health care policy, health and social administration, social policy, public policy and social work. It will also provide a reference for professionals who need a view of the trajectory of public health financing in relation to changed and changing demographics and disease patterns.

For the last two decades, major Asian economies have successfully kept their economic growth momentum going. Now, as these economies are entering a new phase of economic growth, more attention is being paid to their respective states of social development, especially the provision and the expansion of social security and, in particular, health care. Academic study of the development of health care in developing countries has been for the most part neglected by the literature, and in-depth country case studies that are directly comparable on a one-to-one basis have not yet been conducted in a systematic manner. This book volume also proposes a new stance on health policy and the health care policy paradigm, one that focuses on "saving lives" from premature death, as well as illness, accidents, misery and poverty, based on the normative theory of developmental social policy (DSP). This groundbreaking book will therefore serve as a valuable reference volume for health policy, social policy and public policy experts, social development experts, health and development economists, health sociologists, social workers, government administrators as well as other medical and health professionals and academics.

Health is a major development challenge facing Europe and Central Asia (ECA) today. Living long and healthy lives matters as much as achieving ever-higher incomes. This report is about how to improve health system outcomes in countries in the ECA region. This report, which explores the development challenge facing health sectors in ECA, identifies three key agendas for achieving more rapid convergence with the world's best-performing health systems: the first is the health agenda, in which the main imperative is to strengthen public health and primary-care interventions to help achieve the cardiovascular revolution that has taken place in the West in recent decades. The second is the financing agenda, in which growing demand for medical care must be satisfied without imposing an undue burden on households, by achieving better financial protection, or on government budgets, by ensuring a more efficient use of resources. The third agenda relates to broader institutional arrangements. Here, a few key reform ingredients are identified, each of which is common to most advanced health systems but lacking in many ECA countries.

What is the best way to structure primary care services? How can coordination between primary care and other parts of health care systems be improved? How should new technologies be integrated into primary care? There is considerable agreement among national policy makers across Europe that, in principle, primary care should be the linchpin of a well-designed health care system. This agreement, however, does not carry over into the organizational mechanisms best suited to pursuing or achieving this common objective. Across western, central and eastern Europe, primary care is delivered through a wide range of institutional, financial, professional and clinical configurations. This book is a study of the reforms of primary care in Europe as well as their impacts on the broader co-ordination mechanisms within European health care systems. It also provides suggestions for effective strategies for future improvement in health care system reform. Primary Care in the Driver’s Seat is key reading for students studying health policy, health economics, public policy and management, as well as health managers and policy makers. Contributors: Richard Baker, University of Leicester; Sven-Eric Bergman, Bergman and Dahlbäck AB, Stockholm, Sweden; Wienke Boerma, Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research (NIVEL) in Utrecht, Netherlands; Mats Brommels, University of Helsinki and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; Sweden; Michael Calnan, University of Bristol; Diana Delnoij, Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research (NIVEL) in Utrecht, Netherlands; Anna Dixon, London School of Economics and Political Science; Carl-Ardy Dubois, University of Montreal, Canada; Joan Gené Badia, Catalan Institute of Health in Barcelona, Spain; Bernhard Gibis, National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Berlin, Germany; Stefan Greß, Institute of Health Care Management of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany; Peter Groenewegen, Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research (NIVEL) and Utrecht University in Utrecht, Netherlands; Jan Heyrman, Catholic University Leuven (KULeuven) in Leuven, Belgium; Jack Hutten, Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, The Hague, Netherlands; Michael Kidd, University of Sydney; Australia; Mårten Kvist, Laitila-Pyhäranta Health Centre in Laitila, Finland; Miranda Laurant, Centre for Quality of Care Research of the Universities of Nijmegen and Maastricht in Nijmegen, Netherlands; Margus Lember, University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia; Martin Marshall, University of Manchester; Alison McCallum, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) in Helsinki, Finland and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden; Toomas Palu, Europe and Central Asia Development Department of the World Bank in Washington DC, USA; Ana Rico, University of Oslo, Norway; Ray Robinson, London School of Economics and Political Science; Valentin Rusovich, Department of General Practice of the Belarussian Medical Academy for Continuous Medical Education (BelMAPO), Department of General Practice in Minsk, Belarus; Richard B. Saltman, Emory University, Atlanta, USA; Anthony Scott, University of Aberdeen; Rod Sheaff, Manchester University; Igor Svab, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Bonnie Sibbald, University of Manchester; Hrvoje Tiljak, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia; Michel Wensing, Centre for Quality of Care Research of the Universities of Nijmegen and Maastricht in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

The nations of the EU have long led the world in universal health coverage. Recent economic developments have created problems ranging from inequities of care to growing numbers of uninsured — a progression analyzed by Win de Gooijer in Trends in EU Health Care Systems. His ideas may be startling, and the book is bound to be controversial. This is critical reading for health care managers and policymakers, politicians and insurors - anyone looking to Europe to understand this far-reaching evolution.

Informal payments in the health sector of Eastern and Central Asia are emerging as a fundamental aspect of health care financing and a serious impediment to health care reform. These informal payments, made to individuals or institutions in cash or in kind, are nearly always for services that are meant to be covered by the health care system. Such private payments to public personnel have created an informal market for health care , and are a form of corruption. This problem's roots are traced to declining revenues which have not coincided with a reduction in buildings, hospital beds and health personnel. In these circumstances informal payments compensate for lost earnings, and therefore reforms to modernise the region's health systems must compete with individuals' personal revenues. Options for addressing this problem include comprehensive anticorruption policies, downsizing of the public health system, reducing the set of services sibsidised by the state, encouraging cost sharing with those who can afford it, improving accountability, and promoting private alternatives.

This book analyses recent reform trends of European health care systems. Using eight European countries case studies it connects policy reforms with a healthcare quadrilemma, and compares how well these systems perform in terms of economic efficiency, medical achievements, social inequalities, and responsiveness to patients and workers.