Comparative Health Systems: Germany Versus China

This review article presents a comparative analysis of the health systems of two diverse countries, Germany and China, which represent developed and developing countries. The essence of conducting this comparison is to give an insight into the functional systems of a developed country, Germany in this case, and to evaluate the performance of a developing country using the same indicators. It provides a detailed account of the building blocks of their health systems (health service delivery, health workforce, access to essential medicines, health systems financing, health information systems, leadership, and governance) and the effects of political and socio-economic climates on their effectiveness. A brief summary of the socio-political climate of each country was given before advancing into the current states of each health system. Additionally, it offers a set of comments highlighting comparative advantages and disadvantages, which may serve as important notes for health managers and policymakers. It concludes that reviewing the building blocks of various dimensions of health systems can be useful for policy development and the construction of an ideal health promotion based framework, but further research is needed to determine the effects of each individual building block on health system performance (especially when their integrity is tested as seen in the case of pandemics). Several existed published materials were reviewed and they served as a basis for the information provided in this narrative review article.

Keywords:

comparative health systems , Health promotion , building blocks of health , WHO health promotion framework