'Cross-sectoral coordination is a salient issue across healthcare systems and is high on current health policy agendas in many countries. Philipp Trein's study of the coevolution of healthcare and public health makes a timely contribution to current health policy debates as well as to the emerging field of the politics of public health. The cross-country comparative approach allows identifying specific institutional conditions for integration, while the historical country case studies provide valuable insights into how the specific mechanisms have evolved. Combined, the study highlights the contingency of cross-sectoral coordination and cautions against any quick-fix solutions.' Viola Burau, Aarhus University, Denmark
1. Introduction; 2. Sectoral coupling of health care and public health; 3. Theoretical priors; 4. Global context and case selection; 5. UK: institutional unification and tight coupling of health care and public health; 6. Australia: politicized professions and tight coupling of health care and public health; 7. Germany: dominance of individual health care and de-coupling from public health; 8. Switzerland: Institutional fragmentation, depoliticized professions, and non-coupling; 9. US: politicized professions and loose coupling of health care and public health; 10. Coevolution of policy sectors. Health care and public health in a comparative perspective.