Health policy
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The aim of the study was to determine the attitudes of policy makers in the health care system in Israel to a change in the role of primary care physicians (PCP) and to ascertain the conditions under which they would be ready to adopt the model of PCP as gatekeeper. The study design was qualitative, with analyses of in-depth structured interviews of 20 policy makers from the Ministry of Health, the Sick Funds' central administrations and the Israel Medical Association (IMA) central office. The majority of the respondents claim that they want highly trained PCPs (family physicians, pediatricians and internals) to play a central role in the health care system. ⋯ In light of the broad consensus that competent primary care physicians are the basis for implementation of the gatekeeper model, board certification should be gradually required by employers of primary care physicians. The process of training physicians currently working in the system should be encouraged and supported by the Ministry of Health. Given the existing opposition of policy makers to giving primary care physicians exclusive referral rights to specialists, the current policy of direct access to a limited number of specialties should be continued but not extended to other specialties.
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The health care policy issue regarding the balance between public and private health spending is examined. An empirical model of the determinants of the public-private mix in Canadian health care expenditures over the period 1975-1996 is estimated for total health care expenditures as well as separate expenditure categories such as hospitals, physicians and drugs. ⋯ Much of the public-private split is determined by long term economic forces. However, the importance of the federal health transfer variables and the variables representing shifts in fiscal transfer regimes suggest the increase in the private share of health spending since 1975 is also partly the result of the policy choice to reduce federal health transfers.