Las salud del sistema sanitario español

Using published books and articles, research currently being carried out and personal experience, the «health» of the Spanlsh Health-Care System (SSE), is reviewed. Six similarities of the SSE with health services in other comparable countries are highlighted. (II) a lack of information about the effectiveness and cost of many health services. (II) an abundance of perverse incentives, (III) the fact that prevention is preached a lot more than it is practised and primary care is very under-developed, (IV) the pharmaceutical industry preventing governments from regulating health more effectively, (V) a change in emphasis from technically deflned need to expressed need, and (VI) a generalization of the «public financing plus managed competition» approach. However three contrasts between the SSE and health-care services in other, comparable, coutries are also pointed out: (i) different characteristics regarding state of health, risk factors and health provision, (ii) a public administration which limits its own efficiency, and (iii) an administration caught up in a decentralizing process.