The International Handbook of Health Care Systems

(Hardback)

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Description

A handbook containing comparative studies of health care systems worldwide covering countries at every stage of economic and social development. The contributing authors provide basic information for starting to think about comparative issues in health care including system rationalization and managerial efficiency; the expansion of primary and preventive care; how best to channel the diffusion of increasingly intensive high technology machines and procedures; how to resolve social inequities in the distribution of available health care resources; spending on health care and its effect of infant mortality and population morbidity; the structure of health care administration; and health care financing. Each author provides a picture of their health system's current level of development, and a description of the dynamic forces that drive the system's health care decision-making processes and will determine its path in the future. The contributors highlight the unique historical, cultural, social, political and/or ideological factors that help to explain the structure that currently exists. The profiles are not themselves comparative in nature, but the selected approach establishes a base from which a variety of informed comparisons can be made.

Author Bio

RICHARD B. SALTMAN is Associate Professor in the Program in Health Policy and Management, Division of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.