Health systems in Western countries are plagued by inefficiency and will likely require a substantial increase in the tax burden as populations age. Patients might also face a gradual decrease in the quality and scope of services. The organisational changes needed to drive costs down and...

Healthcare tends to play a crucial role in every country and its society. Appropriate and well-performing healthcare systems constitute an important aspect of national policy. The most important issue connected with this matter is the appropriate adjustment of the health financing system. That...

Health care financing and funding are usually analyzed in isolation. This paper combines the corresponding strands of the literature and thereby advances our understanding of the important interaction between them. We investigate the impact of three modes of health care financing, namely,...

The debate around public versus private health care often turns on cost - that is, on how to reduce costs, and particularly government expenditures, when it comes to health care. This paper examines the theoretical and empirical relationship between health costs and health outcomes in the...

Today, increases in the demand for healthcare are driving European governments to look for ways to control growth in healthcare expenditures and at the same time improve health outcomes. Consideration of ways to enhance trade in healthcare goods and services is important for governments as they...

Comparative Effectiveness Research is a type of health services research that could possibly transform the health care sector of the United States. At least that is what many federal policy makers and third party payers are hoping as health care costs continue to rise at alarming rates. In 2009,...

The dialogue links a portrait of health reform politics in the US from the seventies to 2008 by Ted Marmor with a comparable, parallel essay by Antonia Maioni about Canada's struggles. The pairing is also unusual in having the North Americans comment on each other's portrayal. They do not...