Health Care Reform 2009

From the Publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine

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Not “Socialized Medicine” — An Israeli View of Health Care Reform(0)

November 4, 2009

Dov Chernichovsky, Ph.D.
In 2007, the United States spent about 15% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, whereas Israel’s health care spending was about 8% of its GDP (see graph, Panel A). In other words, on average, Americans work almost 2 months a year to pay their medical bills — nearly twice as [...]

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British Lessons on Health Care Reform

David J. Kerr, M.D., D.Sc., and Mairi Scott, M.B., Ch.B.
Amid widespread recognition that the U.S. health care system cannot continue its current upward cost spiral, forever widening the life-expectancy gap between rich and poor, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has made a cameo appearance as bogeyman in politically funded, shroud-waving TV ads.

A Time for Revolutions — The Role of Clinicians in Health Care Reform

Ara Darzi, M.D.
William Beveridge, the economist whose 1942 report led to the founding of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), famously said that “a revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.”1 Given the combination of the global downturn and the time bomb that is health insurance costs, there is [...]

Effects of Pay for Performance on the Quality of Primary Care in England

Stephen M. Campbell, Ph.D., David Reeves, Ph.D., Evangelos Kontopantelis, Ph.D., Bonnie Sibbald, Ph.D., and Martin Roland, D.M.
In 2004, England introduced a pay-for-performance system to reward family physicians for achieving clinical-quality targets. This analysis of the quality of care for coronary heart disease, asthma, and diabetes from 1998 through 2007 shows


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