075
DEBER, Raisa Berlin. Health care reform: lessons from Canada. American Journal of Public Health, Washington, v. 93, n. 1, p. 20-4, Jan. 2003.
Although Canadian health care seems to be perennially in crisis, access, quality, and satisfaction in Canada are relatively high, and spending is relatively well controlled. The Canadian model is built on a recognition of the limits of markets in distributing medically necessary care. Current issues in financing and delivering health care in Canada deserve attention. Key dilemmas include intergovernmental disputes between the federal and provincial levels of government and determining how to organize care, what to pay for (comprehensiveness), and what incentive structures to put in place for payment. Lessons for the United States include the importance of universal coverage, the advantages of a single payer, and the fact that systems can be organized on a subnational basis.
076
ELIAS, Paulo Eduardo M.; COHEN, Amelia. Health reform in Brazil: lessons to consider. American Journal of Public Health, Washington, v. 93, n. 1, p. 44-8, Jan. 2003.
US analysts and decision-makers interested in comparative health policy typically turn to European perspectives, but Brazil – notwithstanding its far smaller gross domestic product and lower per capita health expenditures and technological investments – offers an example with surprising relevance to the US health policy context. Not only is Brazil comparable to the United States in size, racial/ethnic and geographic diversity, federal system of government, and problems of social inequality. Within the health system the incremental nature of reforms, the large role of private sector, the multitiered patchwork of coverage, and the historically large population excluded from health insurance coverage resonate with health policy challenges and developments in the United States.
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HOFFMAN, Beatrix. Health care reform and social movements in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, Washington, v. 93, n. 1, p. 75-85, Jan. 2003.
Because of the importance of grassroots social movements, or “change from below”, in the history of US reform, the relationship between social movements and demands for universal health care is a critical one. National health reform campaigns in the 20th century were initiated and run by elites more concerned with defending against attacks from interest groups than with popular mobilization, and grassroots reformers in the labor, civil rights, feminist, and AIDS activist movements have concentrated more on immediate and incremental changes than on transforming the health care system itself. However, grassroots health care demands have also contained the seeds of a wider critique of the American health care system, leading some movements to adopt calls for universal coverage.
078
LEE, Jong-Chan. Health care reform in South Korea: success or failure? American Journal of Public Health, Washington, v. 93, n. 1, p. 48-51, Jan. 2003.
South Korea is one of the world’s most rapidly industrializing countries. Along with industrialization has come universal health insurance. Within the span of 12 years, South Korea went from private voluntary health insurance to government-mandated universal coverage. Since 1997, with the intervention of the International Monetary Fund, Korean national health insurance (NHI) has experienced deficits and disruption. However, there are lessons to be drawn for the United States from the Korean NHI experience.
