This book deals with the critical empirical void created by the speed at which healthcare restructuring has taken place in Europe. Chapters explore the political uncertainty and budgetary pressures which have led governments increasingly to turn to New Public Management (NPM)-style reforms to attempt to balance the financial viability of public health structures, with democratic imperatives to maintain socially just outcomes. The authors of this volume consider how governments have therefore shifted identities from principal care providers to contractual monitors, setting targets increasingly directed toward third-party managers in quasi-markets and the private sector. Drawing upon extensive data from Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, and Israel, the contributions explore the often unexpected policy outputs and outcomes engendered by such reforms.

Fills the critical empirical void created by the speed of European healthcarerestructuring

Chapter 1. German  Healthcare  in  Transition:  Global  Pressures,  Governance, and  Public  Wellbeing; Patricia  Hogwood.- Chapter 2. Realigning  Hospital  Planning  in  Germany:  Promoting  or Curbing Market  Competition?; Tanja  Klenk.- Chapter 3. Marketization and Accountability: Lessons from the Reforming Norwegian Health Care System; Simon Neby.- Chapter 4. From  Demi-Gods  in  White  to  Normal  Employees:  Re-evaluating Physicians'  Employment  and  New  Incentive  Structures  in  German Hospitals; Maximiliane  Wilkesmann.- Chapter 5. Accountability in Multilevel Health Care Services: The Case of Norway; Haldo Byrkjeflot, Tom Christensen, Per Laegreid.- Chapter 6. Organ  Transplant  Policies and Cultural Worldviews; Paola Mattei.- Chapter 7. From  'Major  Decisions'  to  'Everyday  Quality':  Direct Accountability  to  Hospital  Clients  in  the  Netherlands; Thomas Schillemans,  Hester  van  de  Bovenkamp,  and  Margo  Trappenburg.- Chapter 8. Accountability  and  Shared  Measurement  in  the  Israeli  Health Care  System; Yehonatan  Almog,  Bruce  Rosen,  and  Jack  Habib.