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Good health is necessary for individuals to flourish as citizens, family members, workers and consumers. Improving health is a key concern of OECD societies, as it can contribute to higher economic growth and improved welfare.
This page contains information on work on health undertaken by different bodies of the OECD. Friendly URL for this web page: www.oecd.org/health
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05-Nov-2009
The Internet update for OECD Health Data 2009 has just been released. Go to the OECD Health Data Update page to download the file and access data updates, along with a fully revised hypertext for Definitions, Sources and Methods.OECD Health Data Updates: Data, Sources and Methods, and Software Updates.
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03-Nov-2009
Despite progress over the past two decades Mexico’s health and education indicators remain well below the average of the OECD and some of its Latin American emerging market peers. Health insurance coverage is incomplete, especially for low-income families, and access to health services is highly uneven.
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27-Oct-2009
International trade in health services has been attracting increasing attention from health analysts, public health policy makers, and trade and tourism promotion agencies but with relatively little data to inform them. This statement was made by David Morgan of the Health Division at a roundtable meeting of ministers of health and tourism at the Medical Tourism and Global Health Congress, Los Angeles, October 26th-28th, 2009.
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09-Oct-2009
The United States spent 16% of its national income (GDP) on health in 2007, which is by far, the highest share in the OECD and more than seven percentage points higher than the average of 8.9% in OECD countries. This presentation was given by Mark Pearson, Head of OECD Health Division, to the U.S Senate Special Committee on Aging.
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07-Oct-2009
The cost of treating disease is vastly greater than the cost of controlling or preventing disease. In a time of global recession, the disparity in health outcomes between developed and developing countries will most likely widen. The rapid expansion in trade, foreign investment and international travel mean that infectious diseases can have adverse effects not only on health but also on economic growth and security.
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23-Sep-2009
Greek health outcomes compare favourably with the OECD average. However, the health care system is seen as not working well by the population. One source of dissatisfaction is the high proportion of private household spending on health, including informal payments, while public health spending relative to GDP is one of the lowest in the OECD.
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10-Jul-2009
Issue 7 of Health Update looks at the question of health spending in the current economic crisis. It also features other key health-related projects throughout the OECD (including information and communication technology, healthy ageing, obesity and long term care) and the recent release of OECD Health Data 2009.
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01-Jul-2009
The number of doctors per capita increased 2% per year on average across OECD countries between 1990 and 2007, but in some countries the trend is reversing. These are some of the findings from OECD Health Data 2009, the most comprehensive source of comparable statistics on health and health systems across the 30 OECD countries.
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15-May-2009
Governments must urgently adapt their labour market policies to help their most vulnerable citizens in the economic crisis, as was concluded at the High-Level Forum on Sickness, Disability and Work in May 2009. Key to this will be avoiding that the crisis further strengthens a disability benefit culture that pushes many people with disability onto benefit schemes and out of work for the rest of their lives.
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24-Mar-2009
OECD Health Working Paper No. 45 provides an overview of past and projected future trends in adult overweight and obesity in selected OECD countries. Using individual-level data from repeated cross-sectional national surveys, some of the main determinants and pathways underlying the current obesity epidemic are explored, and possible policy levers for tackling the negative health effect of these trends are identified.
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11-Mar-2009
OECD Health Working Paper No. 43 assesses the availability and comparability of selected indicators of inequality in health status and in health care access and use across OECD countries, with a focus on disparities among socioeconomic groups.
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24-Feb-2009
This comprehensive review of Turkey's health care system shows that health status has improved rapidly in Turkey in recent decades, partly as a result of higher health spending.
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20-Feb-2009
OECD Health Working Paper No. 42 reviews policies in the area of healthy ageing. The paper begins by defining healthy ageing and related concepts such as active ageing. It then groups healthy ageing policies under four basic types and describes their programmes for improving the health status of older people.
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09-Feb-2009
The financial crisis is severely testing the soundness of pension and health care systems in OECD countries and many are not passing the test. At the World Economic Forum, Secretary-General Angel Gurría urged policy makers to act.
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04-Feb-2009
The Joint OECD/Korea Policy Centre opened its doors in July 2008. It aims to develop data capacity in co-operation with individual country experts and international partners, and organises seminars, conferences and workshops to foster the exchange of technical information and policy experiences in sectors like health statistics, pension reforms and social expenditure.
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14-Jan-2009
Detailed health expenditure and financing data from the 2008 Joint OECD-WHO-Eurostat Health Accounts Data Collection are freely available on OECD.Stat Extracts under the theme Health. Fully consistent with OECD Health Data, the System of Health Accounts database allows for more in-depth analysis of health spending and the detailed cross-classification between health care functions, providers and financing. Summary comparative tables and charts from the database can also be found via the main SHA page.
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Policy Brief - Health
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