BACKGROUND The debate on US healthcare reform has largely focused on the introduction of a public health plan option. While supporters stress various beneficial effects that would arise from increased competition in the health insurance market, opponents often contend that a public plan would drive insurers out of the market and potentially lead to the 'collapse' of the private health insurance...

he US healthcare system is in a crisis and it is finally acknowledging this reality. Like other nations around the world, US health care faces mounting problems including rising costs, challenges to access to services, and persistently wide variations in safety and quality. Following the failure of the first Clinton Administration in the early 1990s to reform the US healthcare system through a ...

This article explores the key issues involved in the attempts at reform of the present medical malpractice system. Investigating the effects that federal tort reform legislation would have on physicians, patients, lawyers, and the medical malpractice insurers, Dr. Gunnar succinctly outlines the issues surrounding the present "crisis in healthcare" and explores the separate interests involved. T...

Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine reported alarming data on the scope and impact of medical errors in the US and called for national efforts to address this problem. While efforts to improve patient safety have proliferated during the past decade, progress toward improvement has been frustratingly slow. Some of this lack of progress may be attributable to the persistence of a medical eth...

OBJECTIVES In 2009, the Chinese government launched a national healthcare reform programme aiming to control healthcare expenditure and increase the quality of care. As part of this programme, a new drug pricing reform was initiated on 1 June 2015. The objective of this study was to describe the changing landscape of drug pricing policy in China and analyse the potential impact of the reform. ...

The United States (U.S.) healthcare system is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Unsustainable healthcare inflation coupled with unexplainable variations in quality of care, and rising numbers of unand underinsured patients have prompted calls for major healthcare reform from multiple stakeholders. Orthopaedic surgery remains at the center of the healthcare reform debate, with rising...

Faced with the challenges of healthcare reform, skills and new capabilities are needed to support the reform and it is of crucial importance in Africa where shortages affects the health system resilience. Edwards et al provides a good example of the challenge of implementing a mentoring program in one province in a sub-Saharan country. From this example, various aspects of strengthening the cap...

Few would deny the contentiousness of the ongoing healthcare reform debate in the United States. Referencing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111–148), a recent article in Foreign Affairs noted that ‘‘no U.S. law has been more passionately opposed by Republicans.’’ Unsuccessful efforts to replace or repeal the Act keep coming, proposed and then voted down or withdrawn during...

The reforms that finally emerged from the Obama administration's initiative were the result of a year of nasty, demagogic and misleading claims in the US public forum, coupled with the complexities of crafting legislation that stood a chance of passing both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The resulting "hybrid" approach to healthcare reform produced a conservative strategy that ign...

Advances in communication science and developments in health information technology coupled with recent health reform initiatives have created unique opportunities for progressing toward a patient-centered healthcare system in the US. We propose a conceptual framework to describe ways in which patient-centered communication may serve as a critical link in translating health information technolo...