Health Working Papers

The OECD Health Working Papers series is designed to make available to a wider readership health studies prepared for use within the OECD.

Health Update No. 10: December 2010

In this issue: details on the Health Ministerial meeting, Balancing quality and privacy in health care, Fit not Fat in the media, Health challenges after the crisis, Making Reform Happen, and our new publications.

Related Documents

• OECD Health Update

The OECD Mental Health and Work Project

Mental illness is a growing problem in society and is increasingly affecting productivity and well-being in the workplace. This project challenges some of the myths around mental health.

Also Available

• Sick on the Job (2011)
• Sick on the Job (2011)

Health : Improving healthcare is vital for long-term growth

With austerity the order of the day in most OECD countries, the public is understandably anxious that budget cuts do as little harm as possible to the services they depend on. Few sectors capture the dilemmas this poses for policymakers quite like healthcare.

Health: Good healthcare at good prices

Health ministers from OECD countries met in Paris to discuss how to meet urgent short-term fiscal concerns without sacrificing the quality and availability of health care, either now or in the future.

OECD Factbook: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics

The OECD Factbook is the best-selling, innovative title from the OECD. It provides a global overview of today’s major economic, social and environmental indicators, presenting them clearly and concisely, and in a range of user-friendly formats.

Health: Key tables from OECD

The key tables on health include data on health expenditure, practising physicians, hospital beds, life expectancy, infant mortality, suicides, cancer, tobacco consumption, and overweight or obesity. Historical data refer to the latest eight time periods.

Related Documents

• OECD Key Tables (Beta)

Expensive health care is not always the best health care, says OECD’s Health at a Glance

The OECD’s latest edition of Health at a Glance shows that all countries could provide better health care.

Policy Brief: Health: Improving Policy Coherence for Development

The cost of treating disease is vastly greater than the cost of controllingor preventing disease. In a time of global recession, the disparity in healthoutcomes between developed and developing countries will most likelywiden. The rapid expansion in trade, foreign investment and internationaltravel mean that infectious diseases can have adverse effects not only onhealth but also on economic growth and security. Although aid from

Why does the United States spend so much more on health than other countries?

The United States spent 16% of its national income (GDP) on health in 2007, which is by far, the highest share in the OECD. This presentation was given by Mark Pearson, Head of OECD Health Division, to the U.S Senate Special Committee on Aging.