The three world systems of medical care: Trends and prospects

M. Terris

American Journal of Public Health, 1978, vol. 68, issue 11, 1125-1131

Abstract: It takes little prescience to recognize that there exist in the world today three basic systems of medical care: public assistance, health insurance, and national health service. These in turn are associated with and correspond to the three basic economic systems extant in the world today: pre-capitalist, capitalist and socialist. There are many individual variations among different countries that have the same medical care system. Furthermore, more than one system can be found coexistent within a single country; the type indicated for each country refers to the system by which the majority of the population obtains care. Finally, the systems are not fixed and immovable; there is a continuing process of revision or replacement. Nor does the change from one system to another occur according to an inevitable progression. The purpose of this paper is not so much to describe the characteristics of the three systems - a necessary precondition for discussion - as to consider current trends and the prospects of transition from one system to another.

Date: 1978
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1978:68:11:1125-1131_0

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