Health equity is the basic theory of universal health insurance and the objective of reform of the medical welfare system. Based on health equity theory with the perspective of giving priority to disadvantaged groups, this article takes Zhejiang province as an example and adopts a mixed-method approach to explore the effects of the reform of the medical welfare system on health equity for older...

Economic and political experts appear to agree that the US health care system is a horrible mess, and there is no consensus as to how to fix it. The differential diagnosis is that our health care system: (a) is dying because of hopelessly opposed political parties and greedy insurance companies or (b) has a treatable illness. I believe that the illness is treatable, if we adhere to several guid...

Despite progressive universal drug coverage and pharmaceutical policies found in other countries, Canada remains the only developed nation with a publicly funded healthcare system that does not include universal coverage for prescription drugs. In the absence of a national pharmacare plan, a province may choose to cover a specific sub-population for certain drugs. Altho...

America can attain affordable health insurance coverage for all by using a pragmatic approach. Such an effort must accommodate the realities of the American health care system and resist the temptation to propose radical restructuring. The congressional strategy for universal health care described here was developed by the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine. It...

BACKGROUND China is reforming and restructuring its health insurance system to achieve the goal of universal coverage. This study aims to understand the determinants of public, private and multiple insurance coverage among people of retirement-age in China. METHODS We used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey 2011 and 2013, a nationally representative survey of Chines...

South Africa is considering introducing a universal health care system. A key concern for policy-makers and the general public is whether or not this reform is affordable. Modelling the resource and revenue generation requirements of alternative reform options is critical to inform decision-making. This paper considers three reform scenarios: universal coverage funded by increased allocations t...

The French health system combines universal coverage with a public-private mix of hospital and ambulatory care and a higher volume of service provision than in the United States. Although the system is far from perfect, its indicators of health status and consumer satisfaction are high; its expenditures, as a share of gross domestic product, are far lower than in the United States; and patients...

Given the level of economic development in Viet Nam, the country’s health sector is quite impressive. The country has now set its sights establishing universal health insurance coverage by 2015. This article aims to, first, describe the current health-care system in Viet Nam accompanied by a number of challenges the country faces in delivering and financing health-related services, and then pro...