The International journal of health planning and management
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This paper discusses the progress and prospects of China's complex health care reform beginning in 2009. The Chinese government's undertaking of systemic reform has achieved laudable achievements, including the expansion of social health insurance, the reform of public hospitals, and the strengthening of primary care. An innovative policy tool in China, policy experimentation under hierarchy, played an important role in facilitating these achievements. ⋯ Moreover, the Chinese government announced the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint in October 2016, which has the goals of providing universal health security for all citizens by 2030. By examining these policy priorities against the existing gaps and challenges, we conclude that China's health care reform is heading in the right direction. To effectively implement these policies, we recommend that China should take advantage of policy experimentation to mobilize bottom-up initiatives and encourage innovations.
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Int J Health Plann Manage · Jul 2016
Comparative StudyWhat can the Canadians and Americans learn from each other's health care systems?
Numerous papers have been written comparing the Canadian and US healthcare systems, and a number of health policy experts have recommended that the Americans implement their single-payer system to save 12-20% of its healthcare expenditures. This paper is different in that it assumes that neither country will undertake a significant philosophic or structural change in their healthcare system, but there are lessons to be learned that are inherent in one that could be a major breakthrough for the other. Following the model in Canada and in Western Europe, the USA could implement universal health insurance so that the 32.0 million (2015) Americans still uninsured would have at least minimal coverage when incurring medical expenditures. ⋯ Because of various vested interests, attempts to implement any of the aforementioned proposals will undoubtedly result in considerable political rancor. There is greater likelihood, however, that the Canadians because their need to be more effective and efficient in their delivery of care, and their overall long-term fiscal outlook will agree to the further privatization of their healthcare system before the Americans will mandate universal access, use the smart card to process insurance eligibility and claims or will impose price controls on high-tech services and on pharmaceuticals. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Int J Health Plann Manage · Jan 2016
Health service utilization and access to medicines among Syrian refugee children in Jordan.
With over one million Syrian refugee children in the region, we undertook this study to characterize care-seeking behaviors and health service utilization for child refugees with the aim of informing humanitarian programming for non-camp settings in Jordan. ⋯ Syrian refugees had good access to care for their sick children at the time of the survey; however, this has likely deteriorated since the survey because of the withdrawal of free access for refugees. The number of refugees in Jordan and relative accessibility of care has resulted in a large burden on the health system; the Jordanian government will require additional support if current levels of health access are to be maintained for Syrian refugees.
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Int J Health Plann Manage · Jul 2015
ReviewPayment systems and incentives in primary care: implications of recent reforms in Estonia and Romania.
Since the early 1990s, major reform in healthcare has been adopted in former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. More than 20 years after, reform in healthcare still draws much interest from policy makers and academics alike. ⋯ We conclude that finding the appropriate mix in paying and incentivizing primary care providers in a transitional context is no easy solution for healthcare policy makers who need to carefully weigh in the advantages and inherent problems of various payment arrangements. In a transitional, rapidly changing healthcare system and society, and a context of financial stringency, the theoretical effects of payment mechanisms may be more difficult to predict and manage than it is expected.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current health care payment reforms in Abu Dhabi and discuss the potential impact of these reforms on health care consumers and providers as we all as long-term sustainability of the mandatory health care insurance system. ⋯ Given the Government of Abu Dhabi has identified the sustainability of healthcare funding as a key governmental policy, more research is needed to systematically examine the impact of the current payment reforms on multiple stakeholders.