Exploring Social Insurance

by Flood, Colleen M.; Stabile, Mark; Tuohy, Carolyn Hughes

• ISBN13: 9781553391364
• ISBN10: 1553391365
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-30
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ Pr

Summary

Sustainability, quality, and accessibility are vital questions in health care. All Canadian governments, concerned about the growing share of the public budget absorbed by health care, are questioning the sustainability of the present system. How can we maintain and improve access to health care services of appropriate quality while ensuring sustainability? If there is one consolation to Canadian governments as they wrestle with the future of Medicare, it is that sustainability concerns are not unique to Canada but affect all countries, regardless of the level of private financing in a system. Some countries, however - particularly social insurance countries in Northern Europe such as Germany and France - manage to achieve universal access without wrestling with waiting lists, while providing a wide range of services. This book examines whether the grail of sustainability, quality, and accessibility could be better achieved through a marriage of the traditional Canadian model with elements of a European system.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	p. vii
Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction: Seeking the Grail: Financing for Quality, Accessibility, and Sustainability in the Health Care System	p. 1
Health Care Financing, Efficiency, and Equity	p. 37
Efficient and Fair Financing of the Public Share of Canadian Health Care Insurance with Greater Reliance on the User-Pay Approach	p. 59
Payroll-Tax Financed Health Insurance: A Way for the Future?	p. 91
Social Insurance versus Tax Financing in Health Care: Reflections from Germany	p. 115
A Competitive Market for Social Health Insurance in Five Countries: Is There a Relation between Funding and Organizing Health Care?	p. 139
Funding Health Care Services: The Optimal Balance	p. 163
The Comparative Dimension of Policy Analysis: Rules of the Game?	p. 185
Challenges and Changes in Pharmacare: Could Social Insurance Be the Answer?	p. 199
Between the Dream and Sleepwalking: Pragmatic Possibilities for Canada	p. 221
Policy and Politics: A Commentary on the Conference on Social Insurance for Health Care: Economic, Legal, and Political Considerations	p. 233
Conclusion	p. 251
Index	p. 277
Contributors	p. 285
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