Following 25 years of landmark progress, health psychology faces even greater change in the foreseeable future. Evolving patterns of health and illness and developments in medicine and related fields will shape the future of health psychology. The articles in this special section discuss these future issues in several areas: the biopsychosocial model, changes in demographics, prevention, clinic...

This article examines the meaning of federalism for health care financing (HCF) and is based on two considerations. First, federal institutions are embedded in their national context and interact with them. The design and performance of HCF policy will be influenced by contexts, the workings of the federal institutions, and the interactions of these institutions with different elements of the c...

Health system financing is a critical factor in securing universal health care and achieving equity in access and payment. The human rights framework offers valuable guidance for designing a financing strategy that meets these goals. This article presents a rights-based approach to health care financing developed by the human right to health care movement in the United States. Grounded in a hum...

This paper introduces statistics related to the size and composition of Korea's total health expenditure. The figures produced were tailored to the OECD's system of health accounts. Korea's total health expenditure in 2009 was estimated at 73.7 trillion won (US$ 57.7 billion). The annual per capita health expenditure was equivalent to US$ PPP 1,879. Korea's total health expenditure as a share o...

Although prepayment schemes are being hailed internationally as part of a solution to health care financing problems in low-income countries, literature has raised problems with such schemes. This paper reports the findings of a study that examined the factors influencing low enrollment in Tanzania's health prepayment schemes (Community Health Fund). The paper argues that district managers had ...

This study investigates differences in the policies being pursued by innovative and non-innovative firms. It focuses on a broad group of strategies--in marketing, finance, production, management and human resources and asks whether there are key areas in which the strategies being followed by innovative and non-innovative firms differ. It also ask how the activities of firms in each of these ar...

We consider the financing of a research project under uncertainty about the time of completion and the probability of eventual success. We distinguish between two financing modes, namely relationship financing, where the allocation decision of the entrepreneur is observable, and arm's-length financing, where it is unobservable. We find that equilibrium funding stops altogether too early relativ...

This paper compares health services for children in Denmark, Germany, Austria and Great Britain using the following dimensions: (1) coverage, where it is asked under which conditions children are covered by the health care system; (2) access, where the family doctor principle in Denmark and Great Britain is compared with the free choice of doctors in Germany and Austria; (3) organizational stru...

Canada's health system is a unique combination of public financing and private provision. With the significant government role in financing health services, health technology assessment (HTA) has found a ready audience as a form of policy research. In addition, Canada has been a leader in HTA and is entering a phase of deepening and maturation of HTA activities. The relative absence of dramatic...