Health Systems in Industrialized Countries

This article focuses on the health systems of industrialized countries which are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It begins with an overview of the various ways to finance health systems in industrialized countries. It discusses the factors generally considered to be the major factors contributing to rising health care spending and the variation in the levels of health care spending across the OECD countries. However, many of the fundamental drivers of health spending growth are shared across countries: most notably, technological diffusion and the shift of the disease burden toward chronic diseases. This article determines successful approaches to manage these drivers of spending while improving the quality and outcomes achieved should be a priority for OECD countries.