The paper constitutes the first detailed comparative study of Southern health care systems. It begins by analysing the reforms they underwent during the seventies and eighties, that is, the introduction of national health services in Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Spain. The second section of the...

Welfare state policies in the health sector centred on medical care and cost containment. The AIDS epidemic challenged the central position of the medical model and introduced new public policies at the periphery of the welfare state, in the field of prevention and public health management. The...

This paper examines some of the recent changes in the Canadian health care system and describes some of the market incentives in the helath care sector. In contrast to European health care systems in transition, the extent and potential for market incentives is still very limited in the Canadian...