Federalism and Decentralization in European Health and Social Care [Hardcover]

This is the first book to examine the processes of territorial federalization and decentralization of health systems in Europe drawing from an interdisciplinary economics, public policy and political science approach. It contains key theoretical and empirical features that allow an understanding of when health care decentralization is successful.Health System Federalism and Decentralization: What is it, why does it Happen, and what does it do?;  J.C.Font & S.L.Greer PART I: BACKGROUND Fiscal and Political Federalism and the Health System; J.C.Font & S.L.Greer PART II: CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE IN TAX FUNDED HEALTH SYSTEMS The Italian Servizio Sanitario Nazionale: A Renewing Tale of Lost Promises; G.Turati Decentralisation and the Spanish Health System: Soft-budget-constraint-modernisation?; J.C.Font The Rise and Fall of Territory in United Kingdom Health Politics; S.L.Greer From Centralization to Decentralization and Back: Norwegian Health Care in a Nordic Perspective; J.Magnussen & P.E.Martinussen PART III: CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL INSURANCE SYSTEMS Decentralisation in Health and Social Care in Poland: does Resource Allocation Matter?; K.A.Kuc-Czajkowska  & M.Rabczewska Federalism in Health and Social Care in Austria; B.Trukeschitz, U.Schneide & T.Czypionka Federalism and Decentralization in German Health Care Policy; M.M?tzke Politiques de Sant?: The Regional Centralization of French Health Policy; D.K.Jones Devolution, Nationalism, and the Limits of Social Solidarity: The Federalization of Health Policy in Belgium; J.Laible Federalism in Health and Social Care in Switzerland; B.Gerritzen Conclusions; J.C.Font & S.L.Greer

A very welcome contribution testing the impact of health care decentralisation on health policies, accountability and citizens' satisfaction. This book makes clear that political infra-state devolution not only promotes and encourages emulation between jurisdictions but that also, in the absel³°