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The government of British Columbia instituted a reference-based pricing (RBP) policy on pharmaceutical drugs to limit reimbursement costs. Only less expensive and therapeutically effective drugs and not 'Cadillac' versions of [...]

Introduction of a cost-containment program, reference-based pricing (RBP), to British Columbia's Pharmacare system illuminates the competing perspectives and agendas of government and the pharmaceutical industry when implementing health care funding [...]

Introduction This article reviews current reform experiments and proposals that reflect the search for a new, specifically Nordic planned market approach to the delivery of health services. It examines both [...], Health care systems in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark are in the midst of substantial organizational reconfiguration. Although retaining their tax-based single source financing arrangements, they have begun experiments that introduce a limited measure of competitive behavior in the delivery of health services. The emphasis has been on restructuring public operated hospitals and health centers into various forms of public firms, rather than on the privatization of ownership of institutions. If successful, the reforms will enable these Nordic countries to combine their existing macroeconomic controls with enhanced microeconomic efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness to patients.

Enhanced services Cathy Comerford GPs must get a binding local contract on practice-based commissioning (PBC) savings or face losing them, warn contract negotiators. GPC chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said GPs [...]

Labour wants all local care to be organised by Primary Care Trusts (in England) which will be in charge of 75 per cent of the NHS budget by 2005. With [...]

Children with communication and swallowing disorders will benefit from the federal spending bill, which boosts IDEA funding by 23% in 2001. Strong advocacy by members has helped bring a happier [...]

Ample funding, strong policies, and 'unsticky' cigarettes are key Next week over 4000 people from about 120 countries will attend the 11th world conference on tobacco or health in Chicago. [...]

$7.5 billion reserve likely to have plenty of takers President Clinton's $794 billion proposal to extend the life of the ailing Medicare system won't cut payments to nursing homes and [...]

During implementation of Medicare reimbursement changes, Larry Lane has been one of the industry's most vocal opponents of the $1,500 cap on rehabilitation services to Part B beneficiaries. Lane, former [...]

Florida Member Raises Awareness of Medicare, Cuts, Invites Senator to Perform Her Job While Congress takes its summer recess from Aug. 7-Sept. 7, members are stepping up grassroots efforts to [...]

* Finance Acts To Preserve SCHIP Funds. The Senate Finance Committee June 12 unanimously approved legislation to prevent states from losing $2.7 billion in unspent State Children's Health Insurance Program [...]

Uncompensated care for the uninsured accounted for about $35 billion in U.S. health spending in 2001, with federal, state, and local governments contributing about 85 percent of that total, according [...]

Meanwhile, deficit projections continue to mount, potentially giving more credibility to those who argue that a broad-based Medicare drug benefit is too expensive, as well as constricting the resources available [...]

The National Institutes of Health should earmark funds from each of its institutes and centers for cross-cutting research, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National [...]

* Labor-HHS Appropriations Clear House And Senate Committees. The $27 budget of the National Institutes of Health would increase by $1 billion under the fiscal year 2004 spending bill for [...]

Quixotic Oregon Program Meets Its Match In Budget Woes. Established with the rallying cry of 'Ration dollars, not people' the Oregon Health Plan has offered coverage to many state residents [...]

US President George Bush has announced the allocation of an extra US$10 billion (Aus$17.05 billion) to an emergency plan' to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. [...]

STATES MAKE MEDICAID CUTS Most states have already made a second round of Medicaid cuts to reduce spending, according to a report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the [...]

Continuing fiscal crises are casting a giant shadow over state governors' inaugural addresses, state-of-the-state speeches, and the upcoming legislative sessions. In January a record 24 new governors and nearly 2,000 [...]

The Bush administration recently decided to withhold $34 million from a United Nations agency that provides family planning and reproductive health services in 142 countries. Instead, the money will go [...]

The ANF gave the thumbs down to the 2002/2003 Federal Budget, saying it meant a major loss of funding for health and aged care. ANF Federal Secretary Jill Iliffe said [...]

President Bush's fiscal year 2003 budget request threatens to virtually eliminate federal funding under Title VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act and could result in shortages in [...]