Why National Health Insurance? : A Primer for Health System Studies

by Hsiao, William C.

• ISBN13: 9789814261753
• ISBN10: 9814261750
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-30
• Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc

Summary

Global health has captured the world's attention and imagination, and has become an important new field of study. A critical part of global health involves the inquiry into national health systems. How a nation performs in disease prevention and transmission, health gains, reducing disparity in health, and insuring against catastrophic health expenses is influenced by its national health system. However, few studies have been conducted on the systemic aspects of health systems or have used comprehensive evidence to assess how well the system has performed. No book has been published on the performance of a national health system based on extensive and systematic empirical evidence. This book fills the gap in the literature.Most of the studies in the book rely on economic concepts and theory, and a few are based on other social theory. Relying heavily on statistical analysis to derive empirical findings about the impacts of National Health Insurance (NHI), some analyses involve modeling. Nonetheless, the chapters are written for comprehension by non-technical readers with technical material and statistical methods placed in the appendix of each chapter.