Under the Social Security Act the public assistance for which Federal grants are made is defined as "money payments2 to or in behalf of needy persons. In accordance with the intent expressed by Congress in framing the law and with judicial definitions, the Social Security Board has interpreted money payments to mean that "payments must be in cash, checks, or warrants immediately redeemable at p...

cancer in this country because we know the primary cause is tobacco. The problem has almost moved from it being a research problem to being a public health problem.' One of the problems facing researchers is that lung cancer patients are more ill by the time they are diagnosed than many other patients. But there has been substantial progress in fighting the disease, at least in men from the hig...

In Australia, compared with other developed countries the many and varied programs which comprise public health have continued to be funded poorly and unsystematically, particularly given the amount of publicly voiced political support.In 2003, the major public health policy developments in communicable disease control were in the fields of SARS, and vaccine funding, whilst the TGA was focused ...

it is well-established that for a considerable period the united kingdom has spent proportionally less of its gross domestic product (gdp) on health-related services than almost any other comparable country. average european spending on health (as a % of gdp) in the period 1980 to 2013 has been 19% higher than the united kingdom, indicating that comparable countries give far greater fiscal prio...

Major political parties remain publicly committed to Medicare and community-rated voluntary health insurance. It is important to understand the future financial consequences of this policy in order to assist community debate about whether such a commitment is appropriate or some other policy should be developed. This paper describes development of, and results from, the APHA health financing mo...

BACKGROUND The public sector healthcare system in Saudi Arabia, essentially financed by oil revenues and 'free at the point of delivery', is coming under increasing strain due to escalating expenditure and an increasingly volatile oil market and is likely to be unsustainable in the medium to long term. OBJECTIVES This study examines how satisfied the Saudi people are with their public sector ...

In recent decades, public health policy and practice have been increasingly challenged by globalization, even as global financing for health has increased dramatically. This article discusses globalization and its health challenges from a vantage of political science, emphasizing increased global flows (of pathogens, information, trade, finance, and people) as driving, and driven by, global mar...

Market forces appear dominant in the transformation of health care systems across the United States. However, in many markets public policy remains an important factor--guiding, facilitating, and in some cases prompting change. This paper reviews how the debate over health care reform acted as a catalyst in local health care financing and delivery systems, and how other public policy tools are ...

We develop a model to analyze parallel public and private health-care financing under two alternative public sector rationing rules: needs-based rationing and random rationing. Individuals vary in income and severity of illness. There is a limited supply of health-care resources used to treat individuals, causing some individuals to go untreated. Insurers (both public and private) must bid to o...