Good health is necessary for well-being but also has another critical impact: it causes poverty, in that large health expenditures can bankrupt families. Many nations are now hoping that formally mandated social health insurance (SHI), involving payroll taxes, will provide a solution. This...

This paper begins with a review of the broad motivations behind the New Public Sector Management (NPSM), including intrinsic differences between public and private organizations that appear to impact on incentives and performance. The experience in selected OECD countries is reviewed where the...