Health Care Models Across the Globe

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Johnson, J. & Stoskopf, C. (2008). Comparative health systems: Global perspectives for the 21st century. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Johnson and Stoskopf discuss in detail the complexities involved in creating health policies in developed and undeveloped countries. The authors explain that because of imperfect market conditions, or political priorities, governments, and other social organizations, have found it necessary to intervene in the provision of health care to its people. The authors also believe that at a fundamental level, health policy making is a political process that involves both governmental and nongovernmental, individuals and organizations, and inevitably leads to cost-quality “tradeoffs.” Irrespective of the type of health care system offered, all nations have experienced problems controlling cost and quality, ensuring effective access to care, and measuring health outcomes. Developed nations face the problem of runaway costs, especially in light of rapidly advancing technological advances. The authors stress that countries such as the United States, which do not have a national structure for healthcare organization and delivery, may be most at risk. Recent advances in the field of data collection, assists developed nations to provide better healthcare quality assurance, but, these advances have not filtered down to less economically advanced nations where the quality of health care can be complicated to measure. Johnson and Stoskopf also explain that all nations have some subpopulation that receives restricted access to health care. But, because it is often expensive and difficult to reach these groups, they frequently experience a breakdown of the healthcare system. This leads to a decreased numb...

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... to see a rise in elderly population. Developing countries depend heavily upon nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for the provision of PHC, and interpretations of PHC can vary widely. Resource scarcity has lead to the selective approach to providing PHC gaining prominence, and for many of the poorest people it remains the most likely source of health care. Those aged over 60, are frequently on the margins of health care resource allocation as they are often considered to not be socially and economically productive. The final argument from Lloyd-Sherlock is that not only will PHC be of considerable importance as a tool of improving the quality of life of older people, but most developing countries already have some existing infrastructure of PHC institutions and personnel, even in rural areas. This means that there is no need to build up systems from scratch.

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