International Resources

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Thanks to Joel A. Harrison, Ph.D., MPH for compiling the list of links below.

International Links

• 2008 Documentary on National Health Insurance in five nations: UK, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland: “Sick Around the World”
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

• Kaiser Forum on “Sick Around the World” featuring Jackie Judd, T. R. Reid, Tsung-Mei Cheng and Uwe Reinhardt:
  http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=2576

• PNHP Senior Health Policy Fellow Dr. Don McCanne’s Quote of the Day on Frontline’s “Sick around the World.”

• International Health Systems for Single Payer Advocates by PNHP Executive Director Dr. Ida Hellander

• Private health insurance and access to health care in the European Union

Links by Country

Multiple Countries Summaries & Additional Sources

• PNHP’s International Health Systems Information

• Snapshots of health systems in 16 countries

• Descriptions of Health Care Systems: Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom from the Commonwealth Fund

• European Observatory on Health Care Systems

• The U.S. spends more for less because of its fragmented financing system
  Anderson, G. et al, “It’s the Prices, Stupid: Why the United States is so Different from Other Countries,” Health Affairs 22(3), May/June 2004

• U.S. Care Quality is No Better Than Other Countries
  Hussey, P. et al “How Does the Quality of Care Compare in Five Countries?” Health Affairs 23(3) May/June 2004

Australia

• Doctors Reform Society of Australia

• Australian website on the attempted (but defeated) corporatization of their health system

• Australian Department of Health and Ageing

• Private health insurers are on shaky ground

Belgium

• New Belgian Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profile

Canada

• Health Care in Canada: Organization, Financing, and Access

• Canadian Doctors for Medicare

• Canadian Health Care Commission

• Center for Health Services Policy and Research

• Documents on the Chaoulli Supreme Court Case
  

• Medical Reform Group of Ontario

• Kirby Report on Health Care in Canada (2002)

• Canadian Medical Protective Association (Canadian malpractice)

• Health Council of Canada Releases Report on Wait Times and Guarantees

• The Canadian Health System: Lessons for the United States
  US General Accounting Office Report, June 1991

• A Survey of the Canadian Health System
  Armstrong, et al “A Perfect System?” excerpted from Universal Health Care, New York Press, 1998

• A Survey of Studies Comparing the U.S. and Canada (pdf)
  PNHP Brief, May 2006

• The Future of Health Care in Canada (pdf)
  Report of the Romanow Commission

• 10 Myths About Canadian Health Care, Busted
  By Sara Robinson | TomPaine.com

• Getting Better Health Care: Lessons from (and for) Canada
  By Armine Yalnizyan | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Denmark

• Health Care in Denmark

Finland

• Finland Ministry of Social Affairs and Health

France

Books & Monographs

• Green DG, Irvine B. Health Care in France and Germany: Lessons for the UK. London, England: Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society; 2001.
  http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cs17.pdf

• Harrison JA. Review of Paul V. Dutton’s, Differential Diagnoses: A comparative history of health care problems and solutions in the United States and France. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press; 2007.
  http://www.amazon.com/Differential-Diagnoses-Comparative-Problems-Solutions/dp/0801445124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216155367&sr=1-1

• Rodwin VG (Ed.) Universal Health Insurance in France: How Sustainable? Essays on the French Health Care System. Washington, DC: Embassy of France; 2006.
  http:wagner.nyu.edu/health/universal.pdf
  http:www.ilcusa.org/_lib/pdf/FrenchHealthCare.pdf

• Sandier S, et al. Health Care Systems in Transition: France. Copenhagen, DK: The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO; 2004. http://www.euro.who.int/document/e83126.pdf

Articles

• Capell K. The French Lesson in Health Care: The Nation’s System isn’t quite as superb as Sicko maintains, but it’s pretty good. Business Week, July 9, 2007.http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_28/b4042070.htm

• Dutton PV. A Primer on French Health Care (drawn from book Differential Diagnosis by Paul V. Dutton). http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/pvd/Primer.htm

• Dutton PV. France’s model healthcare system. Boston Globe, August 11, 2007. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/11/frances_model_healthcare_system/

• Dutton PV. Health Care in France and the United States: Learning from Each Other. The Brookings Institution, July 2002. http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2002/07france_dutton.aspx

• Gusmano MK, et al. A New Way To Compare Health Systems: Avoidable Hospital Conditions In Manhattan and Paris. Health Affairs. 2006; 25(2): 510-520. http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/2/510

• Rodwin VG. The Health Care System Under French National Health Insurance: Lessons for Health Reform in the United States. American Journal of Public Health. 2003; 93(1): 31-37. http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/full/93/1/31

• French High Commission on Public Health. Le système de santé en France, 2000 [in French] http://www.sante.gouv.fr/htm/minister/systsan.htm

• Health Care Systems in Transition: France (HiT summary. Copenhagen, DK: The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO; 2004. http://www.euro.who.int/document/e83126sum.pdf

Germany

• Germany Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security

New Zealand

• The New Zealand Experience: The approach to private health insurance in New Zealand

Norway

• Health Systems in Transition: Norway (pdf)

Spain

• Spanish NHS

• Federation for the Defense of the Public Health System

Sweden

• Glenngård AH, Hjalte F, Svensson M, Anell A, Bankauskaite V.
  Health Systems in Transition: Sweden. Copenhagen, DK: WHO Regional
  Office for Europe on behalf of the European Observatory on Health
  Systems and Policies, 2005. http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E88669.pdf

• Health Care Systems in Transition: Sweden (HiT summary. Copenhagen, DK: WHO Regional Office for Europe on behalf of the European Observatory on Health
  Systems and Policies, 2005. http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E88669sum.pdf

• Rae D. Getting Better Value for Money from Sweden’s Healthcare System. Economics Department Working Papers No. 443. Paris, FR: OECD.
  http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2005doc.nsf/LinkTo/NT000040B2/$FILE/JT00189812.PDF
  This OECD document “Getting Better Value . . .” is quite good. One flaw is its discussion of the one for-profit hospital in Stockholm. While it is true that this particular hospital provides quality care at a low cost, it has to. In an environment hostile to for-profit medicine, one lone hospital has to mind its Ps and Qs or their charter would be revoked. Once the system becomes dominated by the for-profit industry, it’s an entirely different ballgame, as we know from the U.S. experience. Research shows that private, investor-owned hospitals have higher costs and higher mortality rates than private, non-profit hospitals in the U.S. The author of the document doesn’t take this into account.

• Swedish Institute. Swedish Health Care. Stockholm, SE, 2007. http://www.sweden.se/upload/Sweden_se/english/factsheets/SI/SI_FS76z_Swedish_Health_Care/FS76z%20FINAL_Low.pdf

• The National Institute of Public Health. Sweden’s New Public Health Policy. Stockholm, SE, 2002. http://www.fhi.se/upload/PDF/2004/English/roll_eng.pdf

Switzerland

• Switzerland Health System

Taiwan

• Taiwan Ministry of Health

United Kingdom

• UK Ministry of Health