Author Description

This pioneering work is the first comprehensive account of national health systems throughout the world today. In Volume I, the author analyzes the organization, financing, management, and delivery of health services in 68 countries with widely diverse levels of economic development and political ideology. Topics examined include system planning, development, hospital operations, health insurance, cost containment, prevention programs, quality control, primary care, regionalization, privatization, and more. The work clarifies the similarities and differences with which nations have responded to the health and medical needs of their people, offering historical backgrounds and explanations of the current dynamics prevailing in each country. This in-depth study is the product of a uniquely rich research career and represents the author's first-hand experience working in the great majority of the countries described. In Volume II, the principal issues in health systems across countries are carefully examined. These issues are categorized according to the several components by which national health systems may be analyzed. In the general field of health resources, Roemer discusses physicians and traditional healers, nurses, pharmacists, auxiliary health personnel, the background and distribution of hospitals and health centers, and the production and consumption of drugs. The scope and functions of Ministries of Health and social security programs for health care in different types of health systems are reviewed. The book recognizes the contributions of voluntary health agencies, as well as the characteristics of major services in the private sector of national economies. The serious implications of private profit in health systems and the benefits and difficulties of private/public sector relationships are also discussed.