eAlert Tue, 04/08/2008 - 12:00 9499ef27-abae-47c7-8c11-2f33a3a5f48d

<p>As the U.S. seeks to reform its health system, the Dutch and German health systems have been put forward as models. These nations have achieved universal coverage through competition among nongovernmental insurers within a governing regulatory framework, along with government subsidies for those with low incomes.<br><br>In Commonwealth Fund-supported interviews conducted in November and published today on the <em>Health Affairs</em> Web site, the health ministers from the Netherlands and Germany discuss their systems with three U.S. health policy analysts. <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.27.3.w196/DC1… Minister of Public Health, Well-Being, and Sport Ab Klink</a> talks with Alain Enthoven, the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management Emeritus at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. And <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.27.3.w204… Minister of Health Ulla Schmidt</a> speaks with Tsung-Mei Cheng, the host and executive editor of the International Forum at Princeton's International Center, and Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.<br><br>The interviews cover the role of competition, the individual mandate in the Netherlands, and Germany's approach to technology assessment, among other topics.</p>

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2008/apr/dutch-and-german-health-ministers-talk-with-leading-u-s--analysts-in-health-affairs-interviews