Major disparities in the cost of health care have made the pricing of specialist and hospital services a contentious issue in South Africa, particularly in the private sector. To help inform policy debate, this paper profiles selected experiences on the pricing of health services, competition...

About one in ten patients are harmed during health care. This paper estimates the health, financial and economic costs of this harm. Results indicate that patient harm exerts a considerable global health burden. The financial cost on health systems is also considerable and if the flow-on...

Universal health coverage has been achieved in nearly all OECD countries, providing the population with access to a defined range of goods and services. This paper provides detailed descriptions of how countries delineate the range of benefits covered, including the role of health technology...

Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours have been rising throughout the OECD in recent decades. Lack of physical activity and excessive sedentary behaviour are well-known risk factors for non-communicable diseases, such as heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis. As such,...

In 2017, the “Sláintecare Report” proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the Irish health system including a reform proposal to phase out private practice in public hospitals to end the unequal treatment of public and private patients – private patients typically have quicker access to care...

The measurement of the impact of technology as a driver of health care expenditure is complex since technological effects are closely interlinked with other determinants such as income and the composition and health status of a population. Furthermore, the impact of the supply of advances in...

This paper examines wage setting mechanisms for health workers in hospitals across eight different OECD countries. It describes similarities and differences and how fixed or fluid these approaches have been in recent years through health system reforms, labour market dynamics and economic...

This study covers “tapering scale” mechanism in hospital payments, i.e. mechanisms linking unit prices to the volume of services produced. This paper begins with an overview of hospital services and hospital payment methods in OECD countries, focusing more specifically on DRG-based payment....

This Working Paper examines income-related inequalities in health care service utilisation in OECD countries. It extends a previous analysis (Van Doorslaer and Masseria, 2004) to 2008-2009 for 13 countries, and adds new results for 6 countries, for doctor and dentist visits, and cancer...

Hospitals are the most expensive component of OECD health care systems, accounting for around one third of total health care expenditure. Given growing pressures on government budgets, this is an area of expenditure that has already been, and will continue to be, thoroughly scrutinised for...