Healthy or Sick?
Coevolution of Health Care and Public Health in a Comparative Perspective

Analyses the relation of preventive and curative health policy and its evolution over time.

Philipp Trein (Author)

9781108796149, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 December 2019

332 pages
23 x 15 x 2 cm, 0.4 kg

'Cross-sectoral coordination is a salient issue across healthcare systems and is high on current health policy agendas in many countries. Philipp Trein's study of the coevolution of healthcare and public health makes a timely contribution to current health policy debates as well as to the emerging field of the politics of public health. The cross-country comparative approach allows identifying specific institutional conditions for integration, while the historical country case studies provide valuable insights into how the specific mechanisms have evolved. Combined, the study highlights the contingency of cross-sectoral coordination and cautions against any quick-fix solutions.' Viola Burau, Aarhus University, Denmark

The book analyses how policies to prevent diseases are related to policies aiming to cure illnesses. It does this by conducting a comparative historical analysis of Australia, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. It also demonstrates how the politicization of the medical profession contributes to the success of preventative health policy. The book argues that two factors lead to a close relationship of curative and preventative elements in health policies and institutions: a strong national government that possesses a wide range of control over subnational levels of government, and whether professional organizations (especially the medical profession) perceive preventative and non-medical health policy as important and campaign for it politically. The book provides a historical and comparative narrative to substantiate this claim empirically.

1. Introduction
2. Sectoral coupling of health care and public health
3. Theoretical priors
4. Global context and case selection
5. UK: institutional unification and tight coupling of health care and public health
6. Australia: politicized professions and tight coupling of health care and public health
7. Germany: dominance of individual health care and de-coupling from public health
8. Switzerland: Institutional fragmentation, depoliticized professions, and non-coupling
9. US: politicized professions and loose coupling of health care and public health
10. Coevolution of policy sectors. Health care and public health in a comparative perspective.

Subject Areas: Medical & healthcare law [LNTM], Public health & safety law [LNTJ], Public international law [LBB], Law & society [LAQ], Comparative law [LAM], Law [L]