Japan was the first Asian country to introduce social insurance measures and she has expanded them during the last few decades. The first social insurance law was passed in 1922 dealing with worker’s health insurance in general. It was followed by many schemes of social insurance. National Health Insurance in 1938, Seamen’s Insurance in 1939, Employees’ Pension Insurance in 1941 and so forth. A...

Education yields substantial non-monetary benefits, but the size of these gains is still debated. Previous studies report causal effects of education and compulsory schooling on mortality ranging anywhere from zero to large and negative. Using data from 18 compulsory schooling reforms implemented in Europe during the twentieth century, we quantify the average mortality gain and explore its disp...

BACKGROUND Companionship during labor is known to have both physical and psychosocial benefits to mother and baby. Sri Lanka made a policy decision to allow a labour companion in 2011. However, implementation has been unsatisfactory. Given the leading role Obstetricians play in the implementation of policy, a study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices among them. ME...

Introduction While there has been considerable scrutiny by both domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) of issues of contested medical treatment, little judicial attention has addressed the exercise of public health powers. Indeed, the role of law in public health has been much neglected at both judicial and academic level. This is on one level surprising, given the vulner...

Zunyou Wu, the author of this round table,1 attempts to rebut the United Nation’s recent criticism of compulsory treatment centres for opioid dependence by arguing that: (i) illicit opioid dependence is not simply a health problem, since the dependent person’s behaviour can adversely affect other community members through drug-related crime, use of illicit opioids in public, and transmission of...