Health Care Systems in Transition: An International Perspective

Can the United States learn from other health care systems? This is the question Francis D. Powell and Albert F. Wessen and their colleagues address in this new volume on comparative health care systems. Health Care Systems in Transition presents a framework for examining and comparing health care reform, as well as attempts in Germany, Canada, Sweden, and Great Britain to maximize their populations′ health through efforts involving such factors as access to care, cost containment, and national payment programs. The editors begin by offering guidelines for comparing health care reforms, exploring the issues and components of health care reform and the kinds of challenges reform will continue to face in the United States. The next four sections examine health care and attempts at health care reform in Germany, Canada, Sweden, and Great Britain. The final section considers how structural differences in health care systems may impact efforts at reform and how national reform measures in the countries studied might be reflected in regional and state programs in the United States. Health Care Systems in Transition will prove invaluable reading for scholars, administrators, and students in health care policy, public health, health services administration and research, public administration, and political science.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION The Comparative Study of Health Care Reform - Albert F Wessen Lessons from Abroad - David Mechanic A Comparative Perspective Comparative Health Systems and the Convergence Hypothesis - Mark Field The Dialectics of Universalism and Particularism PART TWO: THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE From Solidarity to Market Competition - Christa Altenstetter Values, Structure and Strategy in German Health Policy 1883-1997 Health Care Cost Containment in Germany - Bradford Kirkman-Liff Germany Unity and Health Care Reform - Bradley Scharf PART THREE: THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE Canadian National Health Insurance - Catherine Charles and Robin Badgley Evolution and Unresolved Policy Issues Will Power, Cost Control and Health Reform in Canada, 1987-1992 - Catherine Fooks Preventive and Primary Care Access Systems - Francois Béland CLSCs as Neighborhood and Social Service Centers in Quebec PART FOUR: THE SWEDISH EXPERIENCE Historical and Institutional Foundations of the Swedish Health Care System - Ellen Immergut Evolving Roles of the National and Regional Governments in the Swedish Health Care System - Richard Saltman Cost Control in the Swedish Health Sector - Casten von Otter PART FIVE: THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE Britain′s Health Care Experiment - Patricia Day and Rudolf Klein The Reforms of the British National Health Service - John Appleby Policy Lessons from the British Health Care System - Donald W Light PART SIX: HEALTH CARE REFORM: TOWARD A SYNTHESIS Structural Differences and Health Care Reform - Albert F Wessen Patterns of Health Care System Change - Francis D Powell