PART ONE: INTRODUCTION The Comparative Study of Health Care Reform - Albert F Wessen Lessons from Abroad - David Mechanic A Comparative Perspective Comparative Health Systems and the Convergence Hypothesis - Mark Field The Dialectics of Universalism and Particularism PART TWO: THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE From Solidarity to Market Competition - Christa Altenstetter Values, Structure and Strategy in German Health Policy 1883-1997 Health Care Cost Containment in Germany - Bradford Kirkman-Liff Germany Unity and Health Care Reform - Bradley Scharf PART THREE: THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE Canadian National Health Insurance - Catherine Charles and Robin Badgley Evolution and Unresolved Policy Issues Will Power, Cost Control and Health Reform in Canada, 1987-1992 - Catherine Fooks Preventive and Primary Care Access Systems - Francois Beland CLSCs as Neighborhood and Social Service Centers in Quebec PART FOUR: THE SWEDISH EXPERIENCE Historical and Institutional Foundations of the Swedish Health Care System - Ellen Immergut Evolving Roles of the National and Regional Governments in the Swedish Health Care System - Richard Saltman Cost Control in the Swedish Health Sector - Casten von Otter PART FIVE: THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE Britain's Health Care Experiment - Patricia Day and Rudolf Klein The Reforms of the British National Health Service - John Appleby Policy Lessons from the British Health Care System - Donald W Light PART SIX: HEALTH CARE REFORM: TOWARD A SYNTHESIS Structural Differences and Health Care Reform - Albert F Wessen Patterns of Health Care System Change - Francis D Powell