This book offers a timely account of health reform struggles in developed democracies. The editors, leading experts in the field, have brought together a group of distinguished scholars to explore the ambitions and realities of health care regulation, financing, and delivery across countries. These wide ranging essays cover policy debates and reforms in Canada, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as separate treatments of some of the most prominent issues confronting policy makers. These include primary care, hospital care, long term care, pharmaceutical policy and private health insurance. The authors are attentive throughout to the ways in which cross-national, comparative research may inform national policy debates not only under the Obama administration but across the world.

Theodore R. Marmor is Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Political Science at Yale, Marmor is the author, among other works, of Understanding Health Care Reform. Richard Freeman teaches in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of The Politics of Health in Europe. Kieke G.H. Okma teaches health care policy and politics at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service. She is currently editing a book on health reform experience in six small democracies (New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Switzerland, Israel and The Netherlands).

“Overall the book is rich in detail and easy to understand for both students and practitioners. It opens up new perspectives for potential health policy innovation and suggests how this knowledge may be transferred to other countries.” - Claus Wendt, Political Studies Review