Patient Choice and Responsibility in the Contemporary Times

For both political and practical reasons, healthcare reforms are more about doing-what-has-been-done-elsewhere rather than learning-by-doing. In this regard, developments in the German Social Health Insurance (SHI) system are of international importance not least because SHI is one of the primary models of financing healthcare both in the North and in the South. This research aims to complement the literature on SHI systems and healthcare reforms by evaluating post-reunification reforms in the German SHI system and how they have impacted the lot of the patient - the raison d'être of healthcare systems. How have the reforms in German SHI since reunification affected the system? What does engagement in medical tourism by the German patient imply for the SHI system? What role does personal responsibility in the German SHI system play in terms of healthcare financing? The author, Percivil M. Carrera presents a comprehensive overview of the German SHI system and highlights the unique role of the patient in the general sense and particular to the German SHI system. Two conceptual models are presented upon which the bulk of the discussion is anchored. The book should prove valuable to health economists, health managers, health policy makers and decision-makers as well as the general public with keen interest on the German SHI system and contemporary issues faced by healthcare systems.