The aim of this series of articles was to introduce doctors to the essentials of health economics and to assess the contribution of economic analysis to solving health service problems. Nevertheless , the Health Service is neither totally "economic" in its operation nor is economics as a discipline completely "healthy" in its development. Both could show signs of improvement. In this sixth and ...

This article analyzes the financial structures of the prevailing public and private health insurance mechanisms. Based on this analysis, it was concluded that the financial structures of health insurance mechanisms are deficient in that they neither produce efficiency in the consumption of health services, nor generate efficiency in the production of health services. On the other hand, closed-e...

The United States is facing a health care crisis with the number of uninsured Americans exceeding 46 million and health care premiums and overall costs increasing at 3 to 4 times the rate of inflation. Proposed solutions include continuing managed care, moving to a single-payer financing system with universal coverage, and replacing traditional health plans with high-deductible policies that al...

Financing incidence analysis (FIA) assesses how the burden of health financing is distributed in relation to household ability to pay (ATP). In a progressive financing system, poorer households contribute a smaller proportion of their ATP to finance health services compared to richer households. A system is regressive when the poor contribute proportionately more. Equitable health financing is ...

This study presented national data on financing policies and practices for health and mental health care among children in child welfare settings, including those who are not placed out of the home. Our three objectives were to: examine variation in the provision of health insurance with a specific focus on placement status; describe mechanisms for assuring timing of coverage; and compare Medic...

South Korea introduced mandatory social health insurance for industrial workers in large corporations in 1977, and extended it incrementally to the self-employed until it covered the entire population in 1989. Thirty years of national health insurance in Korea can provide valuable lessons on key issues in health care financing policy which now face many low- and middle-income countries aiming t...

BACKGROUND Each nation's government is searching for a cost-effective health care system. Some nations are developing their health care financing methods through gradual evolution of the existing ones, and others are trying to adopt other nations' successful schemes as their own financing strategies. RESULTS The Singaporean government seems able to finance its nation's health care with a very...

This list contains codes identifying home infusion therapy products/services. 530 National Council for Prescription Drug ProgramsReject/Payment Codes SIMPLE DATA ELEMENT/CODE REFERENCES1270/RX, 1271 SOURCENational Council for Prescription Drug Programs Data Dictionary AVAILABLE FROMNCPDP4201 North 24th StreetSuite 365Phoenix, AZ 85016ABSTRACTA listing of ...

Mental disorders account for a significant and growing proportion of the global burden of disease and yet remain a low priority for public financing in health systems globally. In many low-income countries, formal mental health services are paid for directly by patients out-of-pocket and in middle-income countries undergoing transition there has been a decline in coverage. The paper explores th...