Towards Universal Health Care in Emerging Economies

This book explores how political, social, economic and institutional factors in eight emerging economies have combined to generate diverse outcomes in their move towards universal health care. Structured in three parts, the book begins by framing social policy as an integral system in its own right. The following two parts go on to discuss the opportunities and challenges of achieving universal health care in Thailand, Brazil and China, and survey the obstacles facing India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa and Venezuela in the reform of their health care systems. The evolution of social policy systems and the cases in this volume together demonstrate that universalism in health care is continuously redefined by the interactions between diverse political forces and through specific policy processes. At a time when international and national-level discourse around health systems has once again brought universalism to the fore, this edited collection offers a timely contribution to the field in its thorough analysis of health care reform in emerging economies. Paying special attention to the historical trajectories of institutional and policy linkages between the health care system, other policy sectors, and political and social coalitions, the chapters offer lessons on available and relevant political and institutional arrangements for social policy in diverse developing countries that will be of interest to both academics and practitioners.