This paper empirically evaluates whether government ideology and electoral motives influenced the growth of public health expenditures in 18 OECD countries over the 1971-2004 period. The results suggest that incumbents behaved opportunistically and increased the growth of public health expenditures in election years. Government ideology did not have an influence. These findings indicate (1) the...

Improving health care systems, while containing cost pressures, is a key policy challenge in most OECD countries. The recent economic and financial crisis has weighed heavily on fiscal positions – with gross government debt projected to exceed 100% of GDP in the OECD area by 2011 – and reinforced the need to improve public spending efficiency. Public spending on health care is one of the larges...

BACKGROUND At 44%, New Zealand has the highest proportion of international medical graduates (IMGs) in its workforce amongst OECD member countries. Around half of New Zealand's IMGs come from the UK NHS, yet only around 50% stay longer than 1 year post-registration with significant costs to the New Zealand health care system. Why these doctors go to New Zealand and do not stay for long is an im...

USAID and the Schools of Public Health at JHU and GWU welcome you to the inaugural issue of GHSP-an open-access, peer-reviewed journal for the global health community, particularly program implementers, to contribute to and benefit from a dialogue based on science and practical programmatic experience.

Much like waiting times for health services, the shortage of physicians and other health professionals poses a major health policy issue in many OECD countries. In this short commentary, I present indications that in Israel's periphery, the demand for advanced health services exceeds supply. This gap creates inequality in waiting times "across" geographical areas in the public sector and, moreo...

This paper analyzes the impact of population aging on health care expenditures in Korea. Examination of the age-expenditure profile reveals that health care resources are allocated more for the older cohort of population over time, suggesting significant growth of health care expenditures due to population aging. We contend, however, that population aging is considered as a parameter rather tha...

The impact of private finance on publicly funded health care systems depends on how the relationship between public and private finance is structured. This essay first reviews the experience in five nations that exemplify different ways of drawing the public/private boundary to address the particular questions raised by each model. This review is then used to interpret aggregate empirical analy...

BACKGROUND While increase in the number of women delivering in health facilities has been rapid, the quality of obstetric and neonatal care continues to be poor in India, contributing to high maternal and neonatal mortality. METHODS The USAID ASSIST Project supported health workers in 125 public health facilities (delivering approximately 180,000 babies per year) across six states to use qual...

This review article compares ambulatory and hospital-based quality improvement methods in Israel. Data were collected from: reports of the National Program for Quality Indicators in community, the National Program for Quality Indicators in Hospitals, and from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Reviews of Health Care Quality.