Welfare Reform on the Web (January 2003): Healthcare - Overseas
CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE HEALTH CARE FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES: ANALYSIS OF THE US OFFICE OF MINORITY HEALTH'S RECOMMENDED STANDARDS
Y Shaw-Taylor
Health Policy, vol. 62, 2002, p.211-221
Paper examines the recommended standards for culturally and linguistically competent health care delivery released by the US Office of Minority Health in December 2000. Discusses the impact of these standards on health care organisations in terms of structural requirements, process requirements and outcome expectations.
DISTRIBUTING HEALTH CARE: ECONOMIC AND ETHICAL ISSUES
P Dolan and J A Olsen
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
Based firmly in the discipline of economics this book provides a clear rationale for public involvement in the market for health care. It looks at the issues surrounding:
- economics and efficiency;
- justice and fairness;
- efficiency-motivated responses to market failures;
- equity motivated responses to market failures;
- providing healthcare;
- finance and regulation;
- economic evaluation techniques;
- the ethics of economic evaluation in priority setting and towards a new health economics.
FUTURE HEALTH CARE COSTS: DO HEALTH CARE COSTS DURING THE LAST YEAR OF LIFE MATTER?
N Serup-Hansen, J Wickstrøm and I Sønlø Kristiansen
Health Policy, vol. 62, 2002, p.161-172
The ageing of the population in Denmark is likely to have considerable impact on future cost of hospital services and a more modest impact on primary care costs. The cost projections, however, depend on the choice of projection method. When taking into account the elevation of costs during the last year of life, the effect of population ageing on health care costs is less than the traditional projection method would indicate. The difference between the projection methods is considerable for hospital costs, but small for primary care.
GOVERNMENTAL PROMOTION OF CO-OPERATION BETWEEN CARE PROVIDERS: A THEORETICAL CONSIDERATION OF THE DUTCH EXPERIENCE
A van Raak, A Paulus and I Mur-Veeman
International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 15, 2002, p.552-564
There has been an increase in numbers of chronically ill patients with complex health problems living in the community. Provision of appropriate care for these "multiple problem patients" is complicated and potentially involves many agencies. Article uses resource dependence theory and institutional theory to analyse the Dutch government's strategies for encouraging co-operation between care providers.
HEALTH CARE REFORM IN RUSSIA: A SURVEY OF HEAD DOCTORS AND INSURANCE ADMINISTRATORS
J L Twygg
Social Science and Medicine, vol. 55, 2002, p.2253-2265
Article attempts to probe some of the sources of support for and resistance to marketisation of the health care system in Russia. It does so through a survey of head doctors in Russian clinics and hospitals and the heads of regional-level medical insurance funds. Results show that on the whole both head doctors and health insurance fund directors support the reforms, although the latter group's support is statistically stronger than the former's. Fund directors responses to the survey tended to fall into the shape of a standard bell around the average response, with small numbers of managers being strongly for or against the reforms. On the other hand head doctors split into two camps, one that strongly supports the marketisation of health care and one that would prefer to return to Soviet-style socialised medicine.
INTEGRATING MEDICAL SPECIALISTS AND HOSPITALS: THE GROWING RELEVANCE OF COLLECTIVE ORGANISATION OF MEDICAL SPECIALISTS FOR DUTCH HOSPITAL GOVERNANCE
G R M Scholten and T E D van der Grinten
Health Policy, vol. 62, 2002, p.131-139
Dutch government policy (now enshrined in legislation) aims at the integration of medical specialists in hospitals and seeks to end their economic and organisational autonomy. The government has attempted to achieve this by including medical specialists in hospital management, with limited success due to their counter strategies. Led by the self-employed, medical specialists have opted in favour of a strategy of collective organisation in hospitals.
INTERPRETING PUBLIC INPUT INTO PRIORITY-SETTING: THE ROLE OF MEDIATING INSTITUTIONS
T Tenbensel
Health Policy, vol. 62, 2002, p.173-194
Article discusses the role of mediating bodies such as the Oregon Health Services Commission in interpreting the views of the public on health policy. Begins by outlining ways in which unmediated public input is regarded as the ideal by which the rationality and legitimacy of policy making can be evaluated, and how this ideal underpins a negative interpretation of the involvement of mediating bodies. Secondly argues that mediating bodies have been a constant feature of actual priority - setting processes that have involved public input, drawing mainly on experience in Oregon, New Zealand and the UK. Finally suggests that mediating bodies can enhance the rationality and legitimacy of priority-setting processes.
MEDICINE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: ESSAYS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF HEALTH CARE
R Rhodes, M P Battin and A Silvers
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
This collection of essays fall into three main categories: those which provide a broad theoretical basis for understanding the concept of justice in relation to the distribution of healthcare; those giving critical examination of how medical care is distributed in different countries and the particular advantages and injustices of those systems; and those looking at the special needs of different social groups and the specific issues of justice raised by the impact of various policies on healthcare distribution. The final section looks at the dilemmas facing those designing health-care systems.
OUT OF AFRICA: LESSONS FOR PCOs
G Meads
Primary Care Report, vol. 4, no.18, Oct 30th 2002, p.28-29
Primary care in East Africa is mainly delivered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Virtually all of these NGO primary care units operate under co-payment arrangements, whereby patients are charged a small sum for services. Throughout the region, for individuals and communities alike, services are community-based. Article discusses the relevance of these systems as models for UK primary care.
THE POLITICS OF UNIVERSALISATION: ESTABLISHING NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE
A M Guillén
West European Politics, vol. 25, Oct 2002, p.49-68
Italy, Portugal, Greece and Spain have enacted reform laws during the past 20 years with the intention of turning their health insurance schemes into national health services. Universalisation of access to public health care was at the centre of the political debate which led to the passing of the reform laws. Article analyses the policy making processes that allowed for such institutional change as well as the achievements and shortcomings of the implementation processes that followed.