Health Policy in Asia

The book assesses the policy actions of select Asian governments (China India Hong Kong South Korea Singapore and Thailand) to address critical health system functions from a policy design perspective. The findings show that all governments in the region have made tremendous strides in focussing their attention on the core issues and especially the interactions among them. However there is still insufficient appreciation of the usefulness of public hospitals and their efficient management. Similarly some governments have not made sufficient efforts to establish an effective regulatory framework which is especially vital in systems with a large share of private providers and payers. A well-run public hospital system and an effective framework for regulating private providers are essential tools to support the governance financing and payment reforms underway in the six health systems studied in this book.