Published 20 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2615
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2615

News

European healthcare systems are useful models for US healthcare reform, congressional briefing told

Bob Roehr

1 Washington, DC

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Three European countries—Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland—are particularly useful examples for the United States to consider in the upcoming debate on healthcare reform, a congressional briefing was told on 14 November.

Each nation relies substantially on regulated competition for the purchase of health insurance in the marketplace and uses a public-private mix of providers and payers, which is regulated by a decentralised system through national and regional activities.

"No country is the best or the worst, each performs well on some measures and worse on others. There are a lot of opportunities for learning from other countries and approaches," said the moderator Robin Osborn, vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation, the charity that cosponsored the briefing.

"People have choice among all providers; there are no waiting lists in Germany; so the access is very good," said Reinhard Busse, of the Technische Universitat, Berlin. "We have been a bit shocked that . . . [Full text of this article]


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