Cost Containment and Efficiency in National Health Systems

EDITORS
 
John Rapoport
Professor of Economics
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, Ma
USA
rapoport@mtholyoke.edu
 
Philip Jacobs
Institute of Health Economics
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
pjacobs@ihe.ca
 
Egon Jonsson
Institute of Health Economics
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
ejonsson@ihe.ca
 

Gesundheitsexperten erläutern umfassend acht unterschiedliche nationale Gesundheitssysteme und konzentrieren sich dabei insbesondere auf die verschiedenen Ansätze für eine nachhaltig effiziente Gesundheitsversorgung und die Eindämmung der Kosten im Gesundheitswesen.

Written by a local health economics expert, each of the eight chapters in this timely handbook and ready reference describes the national healthcare system of a different industrialized country. In each case, the 4-5 specific policies with the highest impact on that respective country over the past 20-30 years are identified.

Introduction And Summary (John Rapoport)
- Highlights of each country's approach
- How are Cost containment and economic efficiency related?
- Strategies and their effects: a cross country analysis
- Current Policy Agenda
Canada (Raisa Deber)
- Canada's Health Care System
- Paying for Canadian Health Care
- Delivering Health Care in Canada
- Overall expenditure trends
- Cost control strategies employed
- Current situation
Strategies To Improve Efficiency In The English National Health Service (Adam Oliver)
- Introduction
- Structural characteristics of the NHS
- The efficiency initiatives
- Conclusion
Strategies For Cost Containment In Finnish Health Care: Decentralization And Price Regulation (Unto Hakkinen)
- Introduction
- Finnish health care system
- Strategies for municipal health services
- Cost containment in services covered by NHI
- Lessons from Finland
Germany (Markus Worz and Reinhard Busse)
- A review of the major structural and operational characteristics of German health system
- Major cost containment and efficiency seeking strategies
- Report on the current situation
The Netherlands: From Limiting Supply To Limiting Demand (Werner Brouwer and Frans Rutten)
- Introduction
- The Dutch health care system in transition
- Cost containment through the years
- Future challenges
Japan (Akinoi Hisashige)
- HealthcareExpenditure Trends in Japan
- Healthcare System in Japan
- Cost Containment Strategy in Japan
- Recent trends and Future challenges
New Zealand (Toni Ashton)
- Introduction
- Overview of NZ system
- Global budgets
- The quasi-market reforms
- Management of pharmaceutical expenditure
- Priority setting
- Management of waiting lists
- Current agenda
- Conclusion
Sweden (Bengt Jonsson)
- Introduction
- Paying for performance - DRG based payments to ospitals
- Reference pricing and generic substitution
- Health technology assessment
- The current situation