Article ID: CBB000930677

A National Health Service, by Comparison (2008)

unapi

Freeman, Richard (Author)


Social History of Medicine
Volume: 21
Pages: 503--520


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: The NHS at 60: Perspectives on Health Care Systems
Language: English

The National Health Service (NHS) has always been compared to other things, to other organisations and systems both at home and abroad. This paper explores those comparisons, beginning with the origins of national public health care in Lloyd George's study of German social insurance, and ending with Gordon Brown's claims for the NHS as `the best insurance policy in the world'. It considers the comparisons and contrasts made for and with the NHS at the time of its foundation and the comparison of state and market around 1990, before reviewing the contemporary function of comparison as form and basis of health governance. The paper presents three related patterns of thought: one prompted by encounter with the other, one sustained by metaphor and one developed in more formal, analytic comparison. It concludes by discussing why comparison itself is such a dangerous and contested thing. Keywords: National Health Service; health policy; comparison; metaphor; learning; governance

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Article Moscucci, Ornella (2008) The NHS at 60: Perspectives on Health Care Systems. Social History of Medicine (p. 433). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000930677/

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Authors & Contributors
Hofer, Theresia
Welch, Ellen
Armstrong, Melissa Diane
Crane, Jennifer
Campbell-Miller, Jill
Jane Hand
Concepts
Medicine and government
Health care
Public health
Medicine
Medicine and society
Social welfare
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
19th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
China
Canada
Tibet
Botswana
Institutions
National Health Service (Great Britain)
African National Congress
World Health Organization (WHO)
American Medical Association
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