Internationale Vergleiche der öffentlichen Gesundheitsausgaben und der gesundheitlichen Wirkungsziele (Outcomes) geben Hinweise auf Ineffizienzen bzw. eine bestehende Überversorgung im deutschen Gesundheitssystem. Im Interesse einer wirtschaftlichen Versorgung wären diese abzubauen. Der Abbau...

Fighting infectious disease in the past, much like today, focused on isolating the disease and thereby stopping its spread. New insights into the modes of transmission and the causal agents in the mid-nineteenth century, together with fear of new epidemic outbreaks, motivated public investments...

This paper compares health care systems. It looks beyond normal academic, political, or journalistic rhetoric, by exactly sticking to facts, i.e. empirical data (in particular data provided by the WHO) and comprehensive case study analyses. The paper finds that a number of myths and common...

Despite some relative improvements in the last fifteen years, the National Health Service remains an international laggard in terms of those health outcomes that can be attributed to the healthcare system. In international comparisons of health system performance, the NHS almost always ranks in...

Medical and nursing care have been separated from social care by deliberate design since the creation of the NHS. This divide is now entirely artificial. People spend less time in hospital than used to be the case and 4 million people over the age of 65 have a life-limiting illness. In such...

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...

“Health, as we all know, is by far the biggest part of the budget. And for years it has also been the fastest growing…. This government has reduced healthcare administration costs to below the national average, and has cut the rate of growth of health spending. That is no small feat….”...

Overall, health outcomes in China have improved tremendously over the past three decades, especially thanks to the reduction in some traditional infectious diseases. However, death rates from chronic diseases have been on the rise, not least owing to changes in life styles and deteriorating...

This paper presents a set of indicators to assess health care system performance. It also presents new comparative data on health care policies and institutions for OECD countries. This set of indicators allows the empirical characterisation of health care systems and the identification of...

How has government healthcare spending prepared countries for tackling the COVID19 pandemic? Arguably, spending is the primary policy tool of governments in providing effective health. We argue that the effectiveness of spending in reducing COVID deaths is conditional on the existence of...