Comparative Health Policy [Paperback]

A broad-ranging introduction to the provision, funding and governance of health care across a variety of systems. This revised fifth edition incorporates additional material on low/middle income countries, as well as broadened coverage relating to healthcare outside of hospitals and the ever-increasing diversity of the healthcare workforce today.1. Comparative Health Policy: An Introduction.-?2. The Context of Health Care.-?3. Funding, Provision and Governance.-?4. Setting Priorities and Allocating Resources.-?5. The Health Workforce.-?6. Health Care Beyond the Hospital.-?7. Public Health.-?8. Understanding Health Policy Comparatively.

Robert H. Blank is an Adjunct Professor at University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Visiting Professor in Public Health at the National Taiwan University.

Viola Burau is Associate Professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and Senior Researcher at DEFACTUM  Public Health and Health Services Research, Denmark.

Ellen Kuhlmann is Senior Researcher at Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany, and Medical Management Centre, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

Ageing populations, the proliferation of new technologies, shifting global issues and intensified public expectations and demands are creating new challenges for all health care systems throughout the world. Some observers suggest that this is leading to a convergence towards the adoption of increasingly similar health policies. Others, however, argue that pre-existing national differences in structures, cultures and patterns of provision and governance preclude simple convergence.

Comparative Health Policy provides a broad ranging introduction to the funding, provision and governance of a wide array of health systems, systematically comparing Australia, Britain, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore, Taiwan alcÀ