Comparative Health Systems: A New Framework

by Federico Toth

The standard classifications of health systems don't allow for the complexity and variety that exists around the world. Federico Toth sets out a new framework for understanding the many ways in which health systems can be organized and systematically analyses the health systems chosen by 27 OECD countries. He provides a great deal of up-to-date data on financing models, healthcare spending, insurance coverage, methods of organizing providers, healthcare personnel, remuneration methods for doctors and hospitals, development trajectories and recent reforms. For each of the major components of the healthcare system, the organizational models and the possible variants from which individual countries can ideally select are defined. Then, based on the organizational solutions actually adopted, the various national systems are grouped into homogeneous families. With its clear, jargon-free language and concrete examples, this is the most accessible comparative study of international healthcare arrangements available.

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2021

Reviews

[1]

A bit weird sentence structure - somewhat clunky and requiring some re-reading at times, but the framework is superb and provides insight into systems around the world. No value judgements made in the book though! The systems aren't compared based on their actual performance, but I think that's the intention of the author - to provide a no-judgement descriptive framework.