Reforming health care

Health reform has become a permanent feature of public debate. But all trends have their day, and any genuine reform process must come to an end. How will the '90s health reforms turn out? Will the public enjoy highly cost-effective health systems offering the best available health benefits? Or are the health reforms bound to fail? To study health reform it is essential to know what is actually happening to and within various health systems, and this volume includes comprehensive articles on health reform in the USA, the UK, Holland, South Africa, New Zealand and Eastern Europe. But to be aware of the facts alone is not enough. Philosophical questions must be addressed if health reform is to be explored in any depth. What, for instance, is health reform? What are - and what ought to be - the typical goals of the health reform process? And by what criteria are the success or failure of health reform to be assessed? Reforming Health Care offers the reader a grasp of both the practical detail and the theoretical fundamentals of health reform, and shows that it is only by understanding the logical structure of reform that burgeoning health reform initiatives can be properly managed.