Health policy
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To describe and evaluate the different price control strategies implemented in Norway after its accession to the European Economic Area (1994-2004). ⋯ The direct pricing strategy, i.e. the international reference pricing, was considered to be the most successful method. In contrast, due to the unpredictability of the market situation, the resulting effects of the indirect methods, i.e. reference-based pricing, generic substitution, and index pricing, were more limited.
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The political use of poll results about public support for a privatized healthcare system in Canada.
Within the context of the political debate on privatization of healthcare funding in Canada, this paper examines the nature and the various role of polls. ⋯ We then discuss those results to argue that polls are not only used to represent the public's preferences but are also political tools used to shape those preferences.
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This study aimed to explore the associations between chronic care organisation and physician workload in primary care. ⋯ Practice size rather than chronic care organisation determined physician workload. Larger practices might use physicians' time more efficiently compared to small practices, but reduced quality of care in larger practices could be an alternative interpretation of the findings.
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Review Historical Article
Health policy in the Baltic countries since the beginning of the 1990s.
The objective of this article is to compare the development of health policies in three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the period from 1992 to 2004 and reflect on whether key dimensions of these policies are developing in parallel, diverging or even converging in some respects. The paper identifies the similarity in the overall goals and compares the policy content in primary health care, the hospital sector and financing. ⋯ There is evidence of both convergence and divergence across the three countries and of progress in the direction of EU15 in key health policy and outcome characteristics. These patterns are explained partly by differing starting points and partly by political and economic factors over the 1992-2004 period.
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To investigate structural and psychological factors that lead non-urgent patients to choose the Accidents & Emergency Department (A&ED) rather than primary care services. ⋯ Use of A&ED services for non-urgent care can be reduced. The understanding of reasons underlying the choice and a change in access, timing and contents of care/services provided by general practitioners (GPs) might provide incentives for shifting from A&ED to GPs surgeries.