Reforming Healthcare Systems

'Why is healthcare reform a pervasive global phenomenon? Why do policymakers continually reform their healthcare systems? Why do ideas for reform, such as market mechanisms, which often have little basis in evidence, continue to hold appeal? This impressive and wide-ranging two volume collection of published articles has no ready answers but it offers valuable insights to aid understanding and policy learning. The editors are to be congratulated on provoking debate about the purpose, nature and value of health system reform. Policymakers are well-advised to consult this collection before embarking on massive "redisorganisation" which delivers limited results.' -- David J. Hunter, Durham University, UK

Edited by Theodore Marmor, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Political Science, Yale University, US and Claus Wendt, Professor of Sociology of Health and Healthcare Systems, University of Siegen, Germany and Research Fellow, Mannheim Center for European Social Research, Germany

Contents: Volume I - Ideas, Interests and Institutions Acknowledgements Introduction Theodore Marmor and Claus Wendt. PART I THEORETICAL APPROACHES 1. David Mechanic (1975), 'The Comparative Study of Health Care Delivery Systems' 2. T.R. Marmor, M.L. Barer and R.G. Evans (1994), 'The Determinants of a Population's Health: What Can Be Done To Improve a Democratic Nation's Health Status?' 3. Michael J. Graetz and Jerry L. Mashaw (1994), 'Ethics, Institutional Complexity and Health Care Reform: The Struggle for Normative Balance' 4. Rudolf Klein (1997), 'Learning from Others: Shall the Last Be the First?' 5. Theodore R. Marmor, Richard Freeman and Kieke Okma (2005), 'Comparative Perspectives and Policy Learning in the World of Health Care' PART II METHDOLOGICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON 6. OECD (1987), 'The Health Systems of OECD Countries' 7. Michael Moran (2000), 'Understanding the Welfare State: The Case of Health Care' 8. Viola Burau and Robert H. Blank (2006), 'Comparing Health Policy: An Assessment of Typologies of Health Systems' 9. Claus Wendt, Lorraine Frisina and Heinz Rothgang (2009), 'Healthcare System Types: A Conceptual Framework for Comparison' PART III HEALTHCARE REFORMS AND THE POWER OF IDEAS 10. Alain C. Enthoven (1993), 'The History and Principles of Managed Competition' 11. Theodore R. Marmor (2000), 'The Ideological Context of Medicare's Politics: The Presumptions of Medicare's Founders versus the Rise of the Procompetitive Ideas in Medical Care' 12. Susan Giaimo and Philip Manow (1997), 'Institutions and Ideas into Politics: Health Care Reform in Britain and Germany' 13. Thomas R. Oliver and Pamela Paul-Shaheen (1997), 'Translating Ideas into Actions: Entrepreneurial Leadership in State Health Care Reforms' 14. Vandna Bhatia and William D. Coleman (2003), 'Ideas and Discourse: Reform and Resistance in the Canadian and German Health Systems' PART IV INTERESTS AND ACTORS IN THE HEALTHCARE ARENA 15. Jean De Kervasdoue and Victor G. Rodwin (1984), 'Health Policy and the Expanding Role of the State: 1945-1980' 16. Rudolf Klein (1979), 'Ideology, Class and the National Health Service' 17. Ellen M. Immergut (1990), 'Institutions, Veto Points, and Policy Results: A Comparative Analysis of Health Care' 18. Joseph White (2003), 'Three Meanings of Capacity; Or, Why the Federal Government Is Most Likely to Lead on Insurance Access Issues' 19. Carolyn Hughes Tuohy (2003), 'Agency, Contract, and Governance: Shifting Shapes of Accountability in the Health Care Arena' PART V INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 20. David Wilsford (1994), 'Path Dependency, or Why History Makes It Difficult but Not Impossible to Reform Health Care Systems in a Big Way' 21. Jacob S. Hacker (1998), 'The Historical Logic of National Health Insurance: Structure and Sequence in the Development of British, Canadian, and U.S. Medical Policy' 22. Sven Steinmo and Jon Watts (1995), 'It's the Institutions, Stupid! Why Comprehensive National Health Insurance Always Fails in America' 23. Rudolf Klein (1998), 'Why Britain Is Reorganizing Its National Health Service - Yet Again' 24. Richard Freeman (1999), 'Institutions, States and Cultures: Health Policy and Politics in Europe' 25. Susan Giaimo and Philip Manow (1999), 'Adapting the Welfare State: The Case of Health Care Reform in Britain, Germany, and the United States' Volume II - Retrenchment, Priority Setting and Solidarity An introduction to both volumes by the editors appears in Volume I. PART I LESSONS FOR HEALTH REFORM FROM CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON 1. Richard Freeman and Michael Moran (2000), 'Reforming Health Care in Europe' 2. Richard B. Saltman (1997), 'The Context for Health Reform in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and the United States' 3. Claus Wendt, Simone Grimmeisen and Heinz Rothgang (2005), 'Convergence or Divergence of OECD Health Care Systems?' 4. Robin Gauld, Naoki Ikegami, Michael D. Barr, Tung-Liang Chiang, Derek Gould and Soonman Kwon