Based on the premise that current trends in healthcare spending are unsustainable, the Australian Government has proposed in the recent Budget the introduction of a compulsory $7 co-payment to visit a General Practitioner (GP), alongside increased medication copayments. This paper is based on a recent submission to the Senate Inquiry into the impact of out-of-pocket costs in Australia. It is ba...

In the early 1990s, the United States attempted to institute a universal healthcare system, an initiative that drew attention to the need to control costs, reduce duplicative testing, and provide high-quality patient care throughout a patient's lifetime. As physician practice models began to evolve to meet the nation's challenge, the need to migrate to a better information infrastructure that e...

The current status of stroke rehabilitation in Japan was reviewed from the perspectives of epidemiology, structures, outcomes and research. Japan is the fastest aging society in the world, facing a rapid increase in its disabled population and ensuing healthcare costs. Although its mortality is decreasing, stroke is the most frequent cause of disability. Traditionally, stroke patients acutely a...

South-East Asian Regional (SEAR) countries range from low- to middle-income countries and have considerable differences in mix of public and private sector expenditure on health. This study intends to estimate the income-elasticities of healthcare expenditure in public and private sectors separately for investigating whether healthcare is a 'necessity' or 'luxury' for citizens of these countrie...

INTRODUCTION Transgender (TG) women in many settings continue to contend with barriers to healthcare, including experiences of stigma and discrimination. Argentina has a universal health care system and laws designed to promote healthcare access among TG women. However, little is known about barriers to healthcare access among TG women in this setting. The aim of this study was to explore indiv...

Introduction Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common nosocomial infection in critically ill patients that is associated with poor clinical and economic outcomes, including longer duration of mechanical ventilation, longer ICU and hospital stay, increased mortality, and increased hospital charges [1–3]. It is the leading cause of death among nosocomial infections, exceeding rates of de...

Access to basic health services was affirmed as a fundamental human right in the Declaration of Alma-Ata in 1978. The model formally adopted for providing healthcare services was "primary health care" (PHC), which involved universal, community-based preventive and curative services, with substantial community involvement. PHC did not achieve its goals for several reasons, including the refusal ...

Current scholarship has not addressed the systemic problems that occur in the process of implementing healthcare reform, tending instead to focus on proposing single reform measures to cure specific problems or on constitutional problems related to the Affordable Care Act. 1 To address that gap, this article carefully analyzes a case study of Medicare‘s efforts to control unnecessary hospital a...

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recom­ mends universal motorcycle helmet laws (laws that apply to all motorcycle operators and passengers) based on strong evidence of effectiveness. Evidence indicates that universal helmet laws increase helmet use; decrease motorcycle-related fatal and non-fatal injuries; and are substantially more effective than no law or partial motorcycle helmet...

BACKGROUND Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with an increased risk of adverse diabetes outcomes. In Switzerland, a country with theoretical universal healthcare coverage, people without health insurance face barriers in accessing to and in receiving standard quality care. The Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) have implemented policies aiming at reducing these gaps. We compared quality o...