Healthcare systems - an international review: an overview

Based on the source of their funding, three main models of healthcare can b e distinguished. The first is the Beveridge model, which is based on taxati on and has many public providers. The second is the Bismarck 'mixed' model, funded by se, premium-financed social insurance system and with a mixture of public and private providers. Finally, the 'Private Insurance model' is only in existence in the US. The present report explores the impact of thes e healthcare models on the access to, quality and cost of healthcare in sel ected European countries. Access is nearly 100% in countries with a public provider system, while in most of the 'mixed' countries, the difference fro m 100% is made up by supplementary private insurance. No differences are se en between public and mixed provider systems in terms of quality of care, d espite the fact that the countries with the former model spend, in general, less of their Gross National Product on healthcare. The Private Insurance/ private provider model of the US produces the highest costs, but is lowest in access and is close to lowest ranking in quality parameters.