The detection of cancer in its early latent stages can improve a patient's chances of recovery and thereby reduce the overall burden of the disease. Cancer screening services are, however, only used by a small part of the population and utilization rates vary widely amongst the 402 German...

Germany's ruling coalition has recently introduced a new bill to Parliament, the Care Structures Act (CSA), which aims to improve outpatient care supply structures, decentralize decision-making, facilitate cross-sectoral treatment, and strengthen innovation in the nation's health care sector....

Measures of avoidable deaths incorporate the notion that deaths from certain causes should not occur within specified age groups given effective prevention or timely and appropriate access to health care. The present study investigated the impact on specific types of avoidable cancer deaths...

All developed nations use indicators to monitor the health of their populations, but few nations provide a systematic monitoring of indicators for small regional units. The present study aims to contribute to the literature a single graph that provides a quick and comprehensive overview of the...

In the past, free price setting mechanisms in Germany led to high prices of patented pharmaceuticals and to increasing expenditures in the pharmaceutical sector. In order to control patented pharmaceutical prices and to curb increasing pharmaceutical spending, the Act for Restructuring the...

The present study analyzes the effect of supply-side determinants on regional inequities in outpatient care. Inequities are measured by the degree of disparity between need for and actual utilization of outpatient health services in the 412 German districts. Outpatient care needs of each...

Individual socio-economic status and the respective socio-economic and political contexts are both important determinants of health. Welfare regimes may be linked with health and health inequalities through two potential pathways: first, they may influence the associations between socio-economic...