Patient Choice and Responsibility in the Contemporary Times- The Case of the German Social Health Insurance System

ISBN-13: 9783836453837 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 144 str.

Percivil Carrera

Opis

For both political and practical reasons, healthcare reforms are more aboutdoing-what-has-been-done-elsewhere rather than learning-by-doing. In thisregard, developments in the German Social Health Insurance (SHI) system areof international importance not least because SHI is one of the primarymodels of financing healthcare both in the North and in the South. Thisresearch aims to complement the literature on SHI systems and healthcarereforms by evaluating post-reunification reforms in the German SHI systemand how they have impacted the lot of the patient - the raison dêtre ofhealthcare systems. How have the reforms in German SHI since reunificationaffected the system? What does engagement in medical tourism by theGerman patient imply for the SHI system? What role does personalresponsibility in the German SHI system play in terms of healthcare financing?The author, Percivil M. Carrera presents a comprehensive overview of theGerman SHI system and highlights the unique role of the patient in thegeneral sense and particular to the German SHI system. Two conceptualmodels are presented upon which the bulk of the discussion is anchored. Thebook should prove valuable to health economists, health managers, healthpolicy makers and decision-makers as well as the general public with keeninterest on the German SHI system and contemporary issues faced byhealthcare systems.