Towards Universal Health Care in Emerging Economies: Opportunities and Challenges

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.

This book is available as Hardcover or as eBook.

Contents

1) Introduction: The Universalization of Health Care in Emerging Economies, Ilcheong Yi, Elizabeth Koechlein and Armando de Negri Filho

Part I Analyzing Common Pressures and Diverse Social Policy Responses

2) The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy, Ben Fine

3) Universalism and Health: The Battle of Ideas, Susanne MacGregor

Part II Moving Towards Universal Health Care: Opportunities and Challenges

4) The Politics of Health Care Reform in Thailand, Erik Martinez Kuhonta

5) The Impacts of Universalization: A Case Study on Thailand’s Social Protection and Universal Health Coverage, Prapaporn Tivayanond Mongkhonvanit and Piya Hanvoravongchai

6) Political and Institutional Drivers of Social Security Universalization in Brazil,
Marcus André Melo

7) Universalizing Health Care in Brazil: Opportunities and Challenges, Ana Luiza d’Ávila Viana, Hudson Pacífico da Silva and Ilcheong Yi

8) What Kind of Welfare State Is Emerging in China? Stein Ringen and Kinglun Ngok

9) China’s Universal Health Care Coverage, William Hsiao, Mingqiang Li and Shufang Zhang

Part III Obstacles to Moving Towards Universal Health Care

10) Constraints on Universal Health Care in the Russian Federation: Inequality, Informality and the Failures of Mandatory Health Insurance Reforms, Linda J. Cook

11) The Fragmented Social Protection System in India: Five Key Rights but Two Missing,
Santosh Mehrotra, Neha Kumra and Ankita Gandhi

12) The Drivers of Universal Health Care in South Africa: The Role of Ideas, Actors and Institutions Rebecca Surender

13) Social Policy in Venezuela: Bucking Neoliberalism or Unsustainable Clientelism? Julia Buxton

14) Expanding Social Security in Indonesia: The Current Processes and Challenges, Asep Suryahadi, Vita Febriany and Athia Yumna

Ilcheong Yi is Senior Research Coordinator at UNRISD. Born in the Republic of Korea, he was trained as both a political scientist and social policy analyst. He specializes in the issues of poverty, social policy, labour policy and historical analysis of the economic and social development process.