Health system reform in the Republic of China: formulating policy in a market-based health system
Article Abstract:
Taiwan's prolonged process of health care reform may provide lessons for the US. Originally a market-based system similar to that in the US, Taiwan's health care industry has been regulated more and more by the government since the early 1980s. In 1995, a plan for universal health insurance is to be implemented. Previously, only 54% of Taiwanese were insured under three government programs. Combining these plans into one should lower costs and streamline administration. The universal coverage plan includes substantial co-payments by patients. This is seen as one way to limit utilization and control costs. In contrast to the US, however, Taiwan does not have a large private health insurance industry to contend with. Slow but careful progress in health care reform may make the political and social transition to universal coverage easier to achieve than a major system overhaul.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1995
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The Australian health care system: are the incentives Down Under right side up?
Article Abstract:
Australia has demonstrated that a health care system that controls costs can still offer universal coverage and ensure adequate health outcomes for most of its people. Australia spent only 8.5% of its gross domestic product on health care in 1993, compared to 13.9% in the US that year. Health services are provided by both the private and public sector. Over 40% of all Australian physicians are general practitioners, compared to 10.7% in the US. Australia has kept costs low by limiting expensive technology, and controlling physician's fees and hospital budgets.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1996
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The effect of universal health insurance on health care utilization in Taiwan: results from a natural experiment
Article Abstract:
The use of health care services increased substantially in Taiwan after the government introduced universal health insurance in 1995. Before then, 43% of all Taiwanese were uninsured, mostly children, students, unemployed women and the elderly. Within the first year after the program was implemented, the newly insured residents made about twice as many visits to a physician as they had when uninsured. Their hospitalization rate also doubled. In fact, their use of resources equalled that of those who had always been insured.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1997
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