This paper examines wage setting mechanisms for health workers in hospitals across eight different OECD countries. It describes similarities and differences and how fixed or fluid these approaches have been in recent years through health system reforms, labour market dynamics and economic...

Doctors are distributed unequally across different regions in virtually all OECD countries, and this causes concern about how to continue to ensure access to health services everywhere. In particular access to services in rural regions is the focus of attention of policymakers, although in some...

Nurses are usually the most numerous professionals in the healthcare workforce, and their contribution is a core component in attaining the policy objectives of improved productivity, quality of care and effectiveness in the health sector. The recent global economic crisis, and its related...

There is a considerable interest in some OECD countries in understanding how greater choice in health markets can be combined with the equity and efficiency goals of health systems. This paper reviews the system of free choice of insurer in basic mandatory health insurance that was introduced...

<OL><LI>Governments often look to private health insurance (PHI) as a possible means of addressing some health system challenges. For example, they may consider enhancing its role as an alternative source of health financing and a way to increase system capacity, or promoting it as a tool to further...</li></ol>

The UK has a population of 56 million, and most healthcare is delivered through the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS employs more than one million staff. In the late 1990s shortages of skilled staff were a main obstacle to improving services in the NHS. The response by government was to...

<OL><LI>This paper analyses the Slovak health insurance system and the policy challenges it faces. It describes the structure of health coverage and health sector reforms being implemented by the Slovak government. It provides a preliminary assessment of the possible impact of such reforms, with a focus...</li></ol>

<OL><LI>Private health insurance (PHI) is the sole source of primary health coverage for a third of the Netherlands’ population earning above a set income threshold. Social insurance (together with limited public (tax-based financing) is the main source of health coverage for the majority of the...</li></ol>

This working paper offers an overview of the LTC workforce and reviews country responses to a growing demand for LTC workers. In the context of ageing societies, the importance of long-term care is growing in all OECD countries. In 2005, long-term care expenditure accounted for slightly over 1%...

<OL><LI>An important potential contribution to the efficient use of the health workforce, is the possibility of ‘skill mix’ changes. ‘Skill mix’ is a relatively broad term which can refer to the mix of staff in the workforce or the demarcation of roles and activities among different categories...</li></ol>