This book tells the story of how the Health Services Restructuring Commission developed a vision of an effective health services system for the twenty-first century and attempted to fill a policy and leadership void. (Midwest).

Developed within the context of the expansion of the Canadian welfare state in the years following the Great Depression, the present organization of Canadian health care delivery is now in serious need of reform. This book documents the causes and effects of changes made in this century to Canada's health care policy. Particular emphasis is placed on the decades following 1940, the years in which Canada moved away from an individualistic entrepreneurial medical care system, first toward a collectivist biomedical model and then to a social model for health care.

Health Reform explores the challenges facing health care provision in the advanced economies. The book exposes the limitations of market-led health reform and demonstrates the indispensable role of a vibrant public authority in the renewal of modern health care systems. Issues covered include: * cost-containment and privatisation strategies in an international perspective * the role of business and the private sector in setting the agenda for health care reform * the restructuring of Anglo-Saxon health systems and the shift in state/market boundaries in Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia * the frontier of health care reform in terms of health and social cohesion *the role of patient choice in health care reform.