This paper compares access to primary and specialty care in three metropolitan regions of France: Ile de France (IDF), Nord-Pas-de-Calais (NPC) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA); and identifies the factors that contribute to disparities in access to care within and among these regions.

The nature of the private–public mix in health insurance and in health care is a major issue in most health systems.

There are well-established frameworks for comparing the performance of health systems cross-nationally on multiple dimensions. A sub-set of such comprehensive schema is taken up by criteria specifically applied to health service delivery, including hospital performance.

To describe the recommendations and interventions addressing violence against women (VAW) in vulnerable women (disabled, pregnant, ethnic minority, immigrant and older women) in key documents and laws enacted in different countries.

To improve financial protection against catastrophic illness, the Korean government expanded the benefit coverage of the National Health Insurance (NHI) for cancer patients in 2005. This paper examined whether the policy has reduced income-inequality in the use of tertiary care hospitals.

The Italian National Healthcare System (NHS) is one of the most decentralised systems since the devolution reform approved in 2001. HTA is spreading as an important tool for decision-making processes both at central and local levels. The aims of this study were to review the state of the health...

To present new evidence both on the horizontal inequity in the delivery of primary health care and on the factors driving inequalities in the use of GP services for Spanish population aged 50 years and over.

To develop a national scorecard for assessing health system performance derived from routine data.