Chapter 9 A New Global Health Actor? The OECD's Careful Guidance of National Health Care Systems1

Abstract

Chapter 9 focuses on ideas about the organization of health systems as developed in and disseminated by the OECD Secretariat. Global health governance is characterized by an increasing number of different global health actors including an increasingly active OECD. After defining the OECD's role in transnational health policy, its potential power to influence national policy‐making by disseminating particular ideas, and a broader overview of the OECD's health activities, this chapter presents and discusses the general OECD approach regarding health systems and analyzes the specific issue of private health insurance (PHI). In order to explore the potential impact of these ideas, some of the OECD Reviews of Health Care Systems and Economic Surveys are examined with regard to their specific recommendations concerning PHI. The chapter also discusses the content and coherence of the OECD ideas regarding PHI and the potential power of the OECD Secretariat to guide national health policy in this dimension.