Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic: Initial responses in 2020 in selected social health insurance countries in Europe☆

Countries with social health insurance (SHI) systems display some common defining characteristics - pluralism of actors and strong medical associations - that, in dealing with crisis times, may allow for common learnings. This paper analyses health system responses during the COVID-19 pandemic in eight countries representative of SHI systems in Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Switzerland). Data collection and analysis builds on the methodology and content in the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) up to November 2020. We find that SHI funds were, in general, neither foreseen as major stakeholders in crisis management, nor were they represented in crisis management teams. Further, responsibilities in some countries shifted from SHI funds to federal governments. The overall organisation and governance of SHI systems shaped how countries responded to the challenges of the pandemic. For instance, coordinated ambulatory care often helped avoid overburdening hospitals. Decentralisation among local authorities may however represent challenges with the coordination of policies, i.e. coordination costs. At the same time, bottom-up self-organisation of ambulatory care providers is supported by decentralised structures. Providers also increasingly used teleconsultations, which may remain part of standard practice. It is recommended to involve SHI funds actively in crisis management and in preparing for future crisis to increase health system resilience.     

Farmers' occupational health care--worldwide

This review will summarize the current state of preventive health care systems for farmers in the world. It is obvious that well-organized occupational health care systems for farmers occur sporadically in only a few countries, and generally are in the initial stages of development. Large cooperative farms and plantations may have industrialized occupational health care. In some countries in Europe, e.g., France and Austria, farmers' organizations may include a certain amount of health and safety activity within their social insurance systems for farmers. Moreso than in other places, the Scandinavian countries have tried different approaches to provide comprehensive health services among farmers. Regardless of the kind of system, it is obvious from experiences worldwide that agriculture is a risky occupation and farmers are exposed to numerous hazards which may result in injuries, work-related diseases, and death. It is promising to note an increased interest in this situation from many parts of the world.     

Demand and supply for psychological help in general practice in different European countries: access to primary mental health care in six European countries

BACKGROUND: The general practitioner is usually the first health care contact for mental problems. The position of a general practitioner may vary between health care systems, depending on the referral system (gatekeepers versus directly accessible specialists), presence of fixed lists and the payment system. This may influence patients' expectations and requests for help and GPs' performance. In this paper the effects of working in different health care systems on demand and supply for psychological help were examined. METHODS: Data were collected in six European countries with different health care system characteristics (Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK). For 15 consecutive contacts with 190 GPs in the six countries, each patient completed questionnaires concerning reason for visit and expectations (before) and evaluation (after consultation). General practitioners completed registration forms on each consultation, indicating familiarity with the patient and diagnosis. General practitioners completed a general questionnaire about their personal and professional characteristics as well. RESULTS: Practices in different countries differed considerably in the proportion of psychological reasons for the visit by the patient and psychological diagnoses by the GP. Agreement between patients' self-rated problems and GPs' diagnoses also varied. Patients in different countries evaluated their GPs' psychological performance differently as well, but evaluation was not correlated with agreement between request for help and diagosis. In gatekeeping countries, patients had more psycho-social requests, GPs made more psychological diagnoses and agreement between both was relatively high. Evaluation, however, was more positive in non-gatekeeping countries. Individual characteristics of doctors and patients explained only a relatively small part of variance. CONCLUSIONS: Health care system characteristics do affect GPs' performance in psycho-social care.     

Risk adjustment and risk selection in Europe: 6 years later

In this paper we analyse the developments concerning risk adjustment and risk selection in Belgium, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the period 2000-2006. Since 2000 two major trends can be observed. On the one hand the risk adjustment systems have been improved, for example, by adding relevant health-based risk adjusters. On the other hand in all five countries there is evidence of increasing risk selection, which increasingly becomes a problem, in particular in Germany and Switzerland. Some potential explanations are given for these seemingly contradictory observations. Since the mid-1990s citizens in these countries can regularly switch sickness fund, which should stimulate the sickness funds to improve efficiency in health care production and to respond to consumers' preferences. When looking at managed care there are some weak signals of increasing managed care activities by individual sickness funds in all countries (except Belgium). However, with imperfect risk adjustment, such as in Israel and Switzerland, insurers will integrate their managed care activities with their selection activities, which may have adverse effects for society, even if all insurers are equally successful in selection. The conclusion is that good risk adjustment is an essential pre-condition for reaping the benefits of a competitive health insurance market. Without good risk adjustment the disadvantages of a competitive insurance market may outweigh its advantages.     

Differences in price elasticities of demand for health insurance: a systematic review

Many health insurance systems apply managed competition principles to control costs and quality of health care. Besides other factors, managed competition relies on a sufficient price-elastic demand. This paper presents a systematic review of empirical studies on price elasticity of demand for health insurance. The objective was to identify the differing international ranges of price elasticity and to find socio-economic as well as setting-oriented factors that influence price elasticity. Relevant literature for the topic was identified through a two-step identification process including a systematic search in appropriate databases and further searches within the references of the results. A total of 45 studies from countries such as the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were found. Clear differences in price elasticity by countries were identified. While empirical studies showed a range between ?0.2 and ?1.0 for optional primary health insurance in the US, higher price elasticities between ?0.6 and ?4.2 for Germany and around ?2 for Switzerland were calculated for mandatory primary health insurance. Dutch studies found price elasticities below ?0.5. In consideration of all relevant studies, age and poorer health status were identified to decrease price elasticity. Other socio-economic factors had an unclear impact or too limited evidence. Premium level, range of premiums, homogeneity of benefits/coverage and degree of forced decision were found to have a major influence on price elasticity in their settings. Further influence was found from supplementary insurance and premium-dependent employer contribution.     

Evaluations of health interventions in social insurance-based countries: Germany,the Netherlands,and Austria

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in social insurance-based, or so-called 'Bismarck' health care systems (Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands) has taken a different course than in either taxed-based (Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, and Spain) or private health care systems (such as the United States). The culture of informed decisions supported by transparent and evidence-based evaluations of health interventions was hindered by the strong professional autonomy and sectoral interests in Germany and Austria for a long time. On the other hand, HTA has a long-standing tradition in the Netherlands. In all three countries sickness funds play an important role in implementing evaluations-as a policy tool-by linking reimbursement to explicit proof of effectiveness in both new and established interventions. This article focuses on the obstacles and opportunities for HTA in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands as countries with insurance-based health care systems.     

Die Krankenhausversorgung im internationalen Vergleich

The article deals with data on expenditure, capacities and services of hospitals in comparative perspective and information on the structure of the health care systems and the hospital sector in OECD member states. International comparison shows that German hospitals by no means are particularly expensive. Therefore, the fact that Germany’s health care sector is very costly is explained by other factors, i.e. comparatively high costs of pharmaceuticals. In addition, the article shows that countries with social insurance-based health care systems usually favor the planning of hospital capacities by public authorities, not by the social health insurance funds. Like in Germany, in most other countries different systems for the financing of capital and running costs do exist. DRGs are getting more important everywhere, however, there is no example for a country using DRGs as a remuneration system for all hospital services.     

卫生服务购买的基本理论与模式

结合国际卫生服务领域改革与发展的趋势,并根据 WHO 提出的将战略性购买作为主要的改革策略,从消极性购买转移到战略性购买的发展过程,系统阐述了卫生服务购买的基本概念、理论基础与模式,以及改革成功的经验与发展趋势,为深化我国卫生服务体制改革提供了一个全新的理念与路径选择模式。     

医疗费用迅速增长:各国医疗保险的共性问题及改革

医疗费用的迅速增长是世界各国医疗保险面临的一个共性问题,导致保险基金支付压力越来越大,各国医疗保险制度面临重大挑战.分析医疗费用迅速增长的原因主要为:医药科技的发展、人口老龄化、传统偿付制度的缺欠等.因此,积极改革医疗保险偿付制度、发展"管理保健"和扩大医疗保险基金收入成为各国医疗保险的改革趋势.     

How comprehensive are the basic packages of health services? An international comparison of six health insurance systems

OBJECTIVES: Interest in the composition of the health care menu has grown. Its outwardly comprehensive nature is as rhetorical as the slogans of universal access and affordability. This paper summarizes the international part of a report to the Swiss government, in which we explored the basic package of services covered by social health insurance in France, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland. The aim of the initial report was to check the appropriateness of the Swiss catalogue, with special attention to the risk of unequal access to health care by rationing of effective services. In this paper, we highlight the major differences in service coverage between the countries and address the possible factors explaining those differences. METHODS: The contents of the basic packages of the six countries were compared using data from government ministries and sickness funds. RESULTS: Coverage is most comprehensive in Germany and Switzerland; these are also the countries with the greatest total health expenditure. Three countries separated nursing care from other types of health care by creating an independent insurance scheme. Some health care benefits are also covered under the heading of social care. High out-of-pocket payments are increasingly used as hidden rationing instruments. CONCLUSIONS: The present comparison highlights the multi-factorial character of the choices made in six countries in order to keep their health care menu within the possibilities offered by available resources.     

Waste in the U.S. Health Care System: A Conceptual Framework

Context: Health care costs in the United States are much higher than those in industrial countries with similar or better health system performance. Wasteful spending has many undesirable consequences that could be alleviated through waste reduction. This article proposes a conceptual framework to guide researchers and policymakers in evaluating waste, implementing waste‐reduction strategies, and reducing the burden of unnecessary health care spending. Methods: This article divides health care waste into administrative, operational, and clinical waste and provides an overview of each. It explains how researchers have used both high‐level and sector‐ or procedure‐specific comparisons to quantify such waste, and it discusses examples and challenges in both waste measurement and waste reduction. Findings: Waste is caused by factors such as health insurance and medical uncertainties that encourage the production of inefficient and low‐value services. Various efforts to reduce such waste have encountered challenges, such as the high costs of initial investment, unintended administrative complexities, and trade‐offs among patients', payers', and providers' interests. While categorizing waste may help identify and measure general types and sources of waste, successful reduction strategies must integrate the administrative, operational, and clinical components of care, and proceed by identifying goals, changing systemic incentives, and making specific process improvements. Conclusions: Classifying, identifying, and measuring waste elucidate its causes, clarify systemic goals, and specify potential health care reforms that—by improving the market for health insurance and health care—will generate incentives for better efficiency and thus ultimately decrease waste in the U.S. health care system.     

Ranking of priorities in employees' reward and recognition schemes: from the perspective of UAE health care employees

A reward and recognition (RR) system is a tool widely applied by organizations to motivate their employees. Outstanding employees expect their effort to be acknowledged by the organization. However, the variety of rewards and recognitions systems used by organizations may be perceived differently by different employees. The diverse workforce structure in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) poses various challenges for organization managers. Managers need to implement the shrewd RR system which best fits their diverse workforce. This research studied how medical sector employees in the private and public health sector view the RR systems in the UAE. Two lists, comprising 26 major approaches to RR, were prepared and its items prioritized by taking inputs from 250 employees working in more than 30 varied public and private health care organizations in the UAE. The findings of the research are expected to provide guidelines for developing appropriate RR systems for organizations in general, and UAE health care organizations in particular.     

世界各国卫生保健制度面临的挑战及改革动向研究

医疗费用的剧增和公平性差是卫生保健体系的一个全球性问题。医疗保障项目覆盖面小且没有系统化;国家财力薄弱,给付水平低;卫生保健管理落后、企业和机构承担了相当多的医疗保障义务,是绝大多数中低收入国家的主要问题。改革的主要方向是建立覆盖全民的基本医疗保障制度,采取费用分担、支付方式改革、引入竞争机制、管理体制改革、加强政府职责和监管、建立专门的老年社会照顾体系等。     

中德初级卫生保健的比较研究

初级卫生保健无论在发达国家还是发展中国家都是卫生保健系统的一个明显特征。根据Starfield提出的不同国家初级卫生保健发展状况要素,对中德两国的初级卫生保健人员、资金来源和支付方式、服务方式及改革和发展趋势等进行比较研究。通过分析借鉴德国的初级卫生保健和全科医生制度,探讨我国初级卫生保健的实现途径,以促进卫生体制的深化改革。     

医疗保险与卫生服务发展研究

医疗保险与卫生服务是辩证统一的关系。医疗保险的推行,对医疗机构既是挑战也是机遇,要求医疗机构转变观念,增强竞争意识和竞争能力,做好监督控制、审核评价工作。成本核算、定额补偿是医院乃至医疗保险发展的核心问题。医疗保险制度的建立和完善有助于优化卫生资源配置,完善医院内部科学管埋体制,提高医疗质量,促进医院发展。社区卫生服务应纳入医疗保险范畴,医疗保险管理邯门从效率角度出发,也应首先选择社区卫生服务机构承担医疗保险任务。社区卫生服务的发展对医疗保障体系的建立和完善将起到重要的推进作用,而医疗保障体系的建立,必将促进社区卫生服务的深入发展。     

21世纪全面开展初级卫生保健的思考与建议

从我国当前的国力和国际经验来看,我国在21世纪仍然特别需要采取低成本、广覆盖与高产出的卫生发展战略,需要富有远见和创新精神的卫生制度设计。通过立法保障和普及初级卫生保健,保证城乡居民公平享有基本卫生服务,保障全体公民的基本健康权利,是解决当前广大群众“看病难、看病贵”问题的可行策略,是符合我国国情、尽快改善卫生公平性、控制医疗费用过快上涨和提高人民健康水平的最佳制度选择,也是推动卫生改革和体制创新的关键举措。建议通过立法构建我国21世纪初级卫生保健体系,将卫生工作的重点从医疗服务转到疾病预防,将卫生资源从过度的医院服务转向普及基层的初级卫生保健服务,并对相关的社会、环境、行为和心理等健康危险因素进行干预。在大力控制传染病、地方病的同时,尽快建立控制慢性非传染性疾病的能力,防止国家、社会和家庭在未来付出更高的健康损失和经济代价;建议我国未来的卫生服务大体上由“两层服务体系”提供,即初级卫生保健层次和转诊服务层次,逐步实现居民人人享有的“双重健康保障”,即:所有公民享有基本卫生服务和基本医疗保险。     

The role of the state in financing and regulating primary care in Europe: a taxonomy

Traditional health systems typologies were based on health system financing type, such as the well-known OECD typology. However, the number of dimensions captured in classifications increased to reflect health systems complexity. This study aims to develop a taxonomy of primary care (PC) systems based on the actors involved (state, societal and private) and mechanisms used in governance, financing and regulation, which conceptually represents the degree of decentralisation of functions. We use nonlinear canonical correlations analysis and agglomerative hierarchical clustering on data obtained from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policy and informants from 24 WHO European Region countries. We obtain four clusters: 1) Bosnia Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland: corporatist and/or fragmented PC system, with state involvement in PC supply regulation, without gatekeeping; 2) Greece, Ireland, Israel, Malta, Sweden, and Ukraine: public and (re)centralised PC financing and regulation with private involvement, without gatekeeping; 3) Finland, Norway, Spain and United Kingdom: public financing and devolved regulation and organisation of PC, with gatekeeping; and 4) Bulgaria, Croatia, France, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey: public and deconcentrated with professional involvement in supply regulation, and gatekeeping. This taxonomy can serve as a framework for performance comparisons and a means to analyse the effect that different actors and levels of devolution or fragmentation of PC delivery may have in health outcomes.     

Bosnian immigrants' perceptions of the United States health care system: a qualitative interview study

During the 1990s, approximately 300,000 Bosnian immigrants came to the United States as a result of the Balkan wars. In contrast to immigrants from less developed countries, Bosnian refugees were typically older, had experienced significant war related trauma, and were accustomed to universal health insurance coverage. There is little information about Bosnian immigrants' transition to the U.S. health care system. As part of a related project, 12 Bosnian immigrants were interviewed about their perceptions of the U.S. health care system and their experiences as patients. Participants were universally critical of the U.S. system and described several core issues: confusion about insurance coverage, personalized quality of care, access to primary and specialty care; and a perception of U.S. health care as bureaucratic. Participants compared their experience with prewar Bosnian health care along these dimensions. Implications of the findings and suggestions for improving care to the Bosnian immigrant population are provided.     

巴西和智利卫生改革考察报告

巴西和智利的卫生体制改革坚持维护公民健康权益和公共服务政府主导的理念。在具体的改革策略和政策方面,两国的共同特点是:经过广泛讨论,形成保障全体居民公平享有健康的共识,并以法律形式将改革的框架固定下来;强调建立涵盖医疗保障、医疗服务和基本药物政策的综合统一的卫生行政管理体制,保证改革的顺利推进;整合过去针对不同行业和人群的分散的医疗保险制度,形成保障全体居民免于疾病经济风险的综合健康保障制度;建立公共部门与私人部门合作伙伴关系的医疗卫生服务提供体系,提高医疗资源的配置效率和生产效率;制定国家基本药物政策,保证基本药物近乎免费向全民提供。笔者认为,这些经验对我国深化医药卫生体制改革有很多借鉴价值。