"Dr. Gauld’s collection of case studies is informativeand accessible. I would recommend it as acentral text for a course in comparative healthsystems." Political Studies Review Based upon research from eight countries in the Asia-Pacific – Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan – this book analyses and compares their differing health policies. Key issues the book probes include: ·The ways that health care is financed and delivered across the region ·The historical and institutional arrangements that impact upon health policy and health care ·How the health systems differ between the countries under study ·How policymakers and service providers deal with unlimited demand and limited funding and issues such as service coverage and quality ·How pharmaceuticals and population health strategies are managed ·What the roles of the state and various other players (such as the private sector and professional associations) are in the making of health policy and delivery of health care ·The challenges that lie ahead for health care and health policy in the region Comparative Health Policy in the Asia-Pacific is key reading for students, researchers and policy makers with an interest in health policy. It is relevant to those studying medicine and health studies, anthropology, history, sociology, public policy, politics and Asian studies.

The Asia-Pacific region has not only the greatest concentration of population but is, arguably, the future economic centre of the world. Epidemiological transition in the region is occurring much faster than it did in the West and many countries face the emerging problem of chronic diseases at the same time as they continue to grapple with communicable diseases. This book explores how disease patterns and health problems in Asia and the Pacific, and collective responses to them, have been shaped over time by cultural, economic, social, demographic, environmental and political factors. With fourteen chapters, each devoted to a country in the region, the authors take a comparative and historical approach to the evolution of public health and preventive medicine, and offer a broader understanding of the links in a globalizing world between health on the one hand and culture, economy, polity and society on the other. Public Health in Asia and the Pacific presents the importance of the non-medical context in the history of human disease, as well as the significance of disease in the larger histories of the region. It will appeal to scholars and policy makers in the fields of public health, the history of medicine, and those with a wider interest in the Asia-Pacific region.

"A ground breaking set of case studies about how [health care] coverage decisions are made" Robert A. Berenson M.D. Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute, Washington D.C. and former Director of the Center for Health Plans and Providers of the Medicare program Developed countries are facing rapidly rising health care costs and one of the major factors driving health care cost growth is the continual development and diffusion of new, generally more expensive, health care technologies. This book contains: * A description of the institutions, procedures and criteria used by eight countries for assessing technologies for public insurance coverage * An analysis of the role of interest groups, and of the public interest, in these decision making processes * An examination of how particular technologies are treated differently by different countries, and why Based upon research from Australia, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, the contributors argue that although each of these countries is committed to evidence-based scientific assessment of technologies, in fact adoption of technologies is significantly affected by political considerations, and in particular by the influence of interest groups. Moreover, it offers recommendations as to how technology assessment for coverage policy can be improved to serve better the public interest. Health Care Coverage Determinations is essential reading for health policy makers, managers, researchers and students with an interest in health economics, health care provision and the politics affecting health care legislation. Contributors: Liliana Bulfone, Tanisha Carino, Peter C. Coyte, Anna García-Altés, Colleen M. Flood, Stefan Greß, Felix Gurtner, Anthony Harris, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, Eric Nauenberg, Christopher Newdick, Dea Niebuhr, Guillaume Roduit, Heinz Rothgang, Frans F.H. Rutten, Dominique Sprumont, Juergen Wasem.

"This is an excellent and accessible introduction to key current debates in health policy. It is enriched by deft comparative analysis and by the way Dr Gauld locates the study in the context of current ideological debates. Students will learn a lot from wrestling with the questions posed at the end of each chapter – and so will their teachers!" Paul Wilding, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Manchester, UK This book analyzes the issues that form the nucleus of the emerging ‘new health policy’ agenda. Robin Gauld brings together in one volume a comprehensive picture of the health policy challenges facing contemporary developed world health systems, as well as the strategies for tackling these. Individual chapters, respectively, analyze: Challenges in health care funding and organization Quality and patient safety The application of information technology Clinical governance The changing nature of professionalism and public involvement in health care planning Public health The role of the private sector The book highlights the importance to policy makers of each subject, overviews research into it, and discusses policy responses in Britain, New Zealand and the United States. The New Health Policy is essential reading for all students of health policy and health care, along with policy makers and health care professionals.

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.

A highly acclaimed and broad-ranging comparative assessment of health policy around the world.

This wide-ranging text assesses the extent to which policy problems and responses in different countries have common causes or spring from specific national circumstances. The third edition has been revised throughout and now includes: - details of recent reforms in Germany and Netherlands - an increased number of examples from within Asia - boxed histories on the development of the health systems covered This highly acclaimed and broad-ranging comparative assessment of health policy around the world will be useful to both students and practitioners.