In National Health Systems (quot;NHSquot;) the funding and provision of health care co-exists with a developing market for private (supplementary) health insurance. In this setting, interactions between the public and private sector are important and likely to influence the demand for private...

This paper examines the financial sustainability of long-term care funding options in Spain. We employ the generational accounting (quot;GAquot;) methodology to evaluate the intertemporal impact of funding policies for long-term care services in the face of demographic change. Our findings...

The hypothesis of the reciprocal determination of obesity and depression (OD) epidemics, contrasts with the anecdotal wisdom of a person being 'jolly and fat', and calls for a better understanding of any underpinning socio-environmental determinants. This paper deals with the influence of...

Costa-Font J. and Rico A. (2006) Devolution and the interregional inequalities in health and healthcare in Spain, Regional Studies 40, 875-887. The desirability of devolution of government responsibilities is often questioned on the grounds of regional cohesion concerns. This feature is...

In unitary states, competitive decentralisation structures can take place by increasing the visibility of politically accountable jurisdictions in certain policy responsibilities such as health care. Drawing from the Spanish decentralisation process we examine the mechanisms (and determinants)...

Health care is one of the main public policy areas in which management has been decentralised at sub-state level in Europe. However, given the complexities of health care funding, economic research into the effects of such decentralisation, and particularly into vertical and horizontal...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the determinants of quality in obstetric care and particularly why caesarean sections (CS) are experiencing unprecedented increases in developed societies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper exploits a population-based database...