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Competing Solutions: American Health Care Proposals and International Experience
Contributor(s): White, Joseph (Author)
ISBN: 0815793634     ISBN-13: 9780815793632
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
OUR PRICE:   $26.73  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: June 1995
Qty:
Annotation: Health care costs too much and too many Americans go without it. While every other advanced industrial nation has virtually universal access to decent, affordable medical care, the United States has been stuck in massive conflict over how to provide this service to its citizens. Guaranteeing access to and controlling the costs of health care are extremely difficult and complex, fraught with risks and uncertainties. But can the nation afford not to address health care reform? Most Americans recognize that something must be done, yet agreeing on a cure for the nation's health care woes has proved to be exceedingly difficult. Competing Solutions assesses the Clinton administration's proposals and several alternative plans. Joseph White examines the medical care systems of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, revealing both the variety and the fundamental similarities of these systems. He shows how these countries have organized their financing and delivery of health care to achieve universal access and comparable quality care at much lower costs. He uses their experiences to explore the proper direction for American reform and to identify interesting alternatives.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Medical | Health Care Delivery
- Political Science | American Government - National
- Medical | Health Policy
Dewey: 362.1
LCCN: 95007675
Series: Brookings Occasional Papers
Physical Information: 1.1" H x 5.99" W x 9.04" (1.21 lbs) 410 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

With health care reform at the top of the domestic agenda, this volume assesses the Clinton administration's proposals and several alternative plans by discussing how six other countries have organized health care finance and delivery to achieve universal access to comparable quality care at much lower costs. The six countries examined--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan--reveal both the variety and fundamental similarities of medical care systems in the rest of the industrialized world.

Joseph White uses foreign experience to indicate the proper direction for American reform and to identify interesting alternatives that suggest compromises for what are usually presented in the U.S. as either-or choices. Examples include the role allowed for private insurance within all national systems; exceptions to fee schedules in Australia, France, and Germany; and the complaint mechanism for malpractice in New South Wales.

White begins by describing each country's system and then follows with chapters disucssing three classes of problems. Quality and Access uses the experience of other countries to establish a reasonable baseline for what the U.S. should aim to achieve. Collecting the Money discusses who pays and how. Controlling Costs explains how other countries have moderated their cost increases.

The final chapter assesses American reform proposals in light of the foreign evidence. White argues that a synthesis of competition and regulation is possible and that such a synthesis is approached by the Clinton proposals. But he also identifies areas where those proposals fall short or risk collapsing of their own weight. He concludes by comparing the administration's proposals to the major alternatives.

This book is serious scholarship at its best. Comprehensive in scope, insightful in character, and compelling in its reasoning, the book presents a balanced treatment of alternative proposals.--Choice