Abstract
The American healthcare system differs substantially from European systems in terms of the service providers as well as payers. Even if the general discussion may provide this impression, it must be acknowledged that “the one” American healthcare system does not exist. Effectively, healthcare in the United States is made up of a multitude of sub-systems, existing in parallel and partially overlapping. The healthcare systems in California and New York differ as much as that of Germany and the Netherlands at the very least. There are, however, some market segments in the United States that are uniform. This includes the Medicare programme, through which healthcare for the elderly is financed, and Veteran Affairs (the healthcare system for active and former soldiers), for example.
Literature
Amelung, V. E., Glied, S., & Topan, A. (2003, August). Health care and the labor market: Learning from German experience. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 28(4), 693–714.
Anderson, G. F., Reinhardt, U. E., Hussey, P. S., et al. (2003). It’s the prices, stupid: Why the United States is so different from other countries. Health Affairs, 22(3), 89–105.
Bodenheimer, T., & Grumbach, K. (2002). Understanding health policy – A clinical approach (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Brown, L. D. (1994, Spring). Who shall pay? Politics, money, and health care reform. Health Affairs (II), 175–184.
Cacace, M. (2010). Das Gesundheitssystem der USA: Governance-Strukturen staatlicher und privater Akteure. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
California Healthcare Foundation. (2010). Health care costs 101 (Annual report). Oakland.
Cleverley, W., Song, P., & Cleverley, J. (2010). Essentials of health care finance (7th ed.). Sudbury.
Davidson, S. (2010). Still broken understanding the U.S. health care system. Stanford: Stanford Business Books.
DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B., & Smith, J. (2012). Current population reports, P60–243, Income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2011 – Current population reports. US Government Printing Office, issued September 2012.
Dranove, D. (2002). The economic evolution of American health care: From Marcus Welby to managed care. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Greenwald, H. (2010). Health care in the United States: Organization, management and policy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Haase, W. L. (2005). A new deal for health – How to cover everyone and get medical costs under control. New York: The Century Foundation Press.
Hsiao, W. C. (2002). Erfahrungen mit staatlicher und privater Regulierung im US-amerikanischen Gesundheitssystem. Managed Care, 8, 13–15.
Huber, M., & Orosz, E. (2003, Fall). Health expenditure trends in OECD countries, 1990–2001. Health Care Financing Review, 25(1), 1–22.
Hurley, R., & Sheldon, R. (2006). Medicare and Medicaid managed care: A tale of two trajectories. The American Journal of Managed Care, 12(1), 40–44.
Jonas, S., Goldsteen, R., & Goldsteen, K. (2007). An introduction to the U.S. health care system (6th ed.). New York: Springer.
Jost, T. S. (2010). Health insurance exchanges and the affordable care act: Key policy issues. New York: The Commonwealth Fund.
Katz, M. (2006). Health care for less. New York: Hatherleigh.
KFF [Kaiser Family Foundation]. (2011). Medigap reform: Setting the context. http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/8235-2.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb 2013.
KFF [Kaiser Family Foundation]/The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation & HRET [Health Research and Education Trust]. (2013). Employer health benefits 201. Annual survey. Menlo Park/Chicago: Kaiser Foundation & HRET. http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/2012/8345.pdf. Accessed 21 Jan 2013.
Knight, W. (1998). Managed care – What it is and how it works. Gaithersburg: Aspen Publishers.
Kovner, A. R., & Knickman, J. R. (2005). Health care delivery in the United States (8th ed.). New York: Springer.
Lee, T., & Zappert, K. (2005). Do high-deductible health plans threaten quality of care? The New England Journal of Medicine, 353(12), 1202–1204.
Niles, N. (2011). Basics of the U.S. health care system. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett.
Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2013). Essentials of the U.S. health care system (3rd ed.). Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett.
Sultz, H., & Young, K. (2010). Health care, U.S.A.: Understanding its organization and delivery (7th ed.). Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett.
Tilson, H. H., Ross, M., & Calkins, D. (1995). Medicare and Medicaid. In D. Calkins, R. J. Fernandopulle, & B. S. Marino (Eds.), Health care policy. Cambridge: Blackwell Science.
Zelman, W. A., & Berenson, R. A. (1998). The managed care blues – And how to cure them. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Amelung, V.E. (2013). Main Characteristics of the American Healthcare System. In: Healthcare Management. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38712-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38712-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-38711-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-38712-8
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)