Int J Health Serv
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In Australia, as in Canada and to a lesser extent the United States, the vocational rehabilitation of injured workers is an integral part of workers' compensation arrangements. An essential feature of the return-to-work process is the provision of suitable employment by employers for workers able to resume work following a work-related injury. ⋯ The author examines the major approaches adopted by the various Australian jurisdictions, critically reviews the issue of compliance with employment security legislation, and suggests a number of proposals for reform. Given the number of similarities between Australian and North American workers' compensation schemes, policy lessons drawn from the Australian experiences may be relevant to the labor movement and legislators in Canada and the United States.
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Brewing since the advent of South African democracy in 1994 and promises of health sector transformation, an extraordinary drug war between President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress government and U. S. pharmaceutical manufacturers took on global proportions in 1998-1999. Within months of the passage of South African legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, the U. ⋯ S. government, and evaluates various kinds of resistance to U. S. corporate and government behavior. The case thus raises--not for the first time--concerns about contemporary imperialism ("globalization"), the role of the profit motive as an incentive in vital pharmaceutical products, and indeed the depth of "democracy" in a country where high-bidding international drug firms have sufficient clout to embarrass Vice President Al Gore by pitting him against the life-and-death interests of millions of consumers of essential drugs in South Africa and other developing countries.
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Reducing infant mortality in the United States is a national priority. States' infant mortality rates vary substantially. Public health researchers, practitioners, and leaders have long argued that social and other structural factors must be addressed if health outcomes are to be improved. ⋯ States with proportionately larger black populations had higher infant, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates. States with greater percentages of high school graduates had lower neonatal mortality rates but higher postneonatal mortality rates. The findings suggest that a better understanding of the relationship between states' social structure and infant health outcomes is needed if state-level infant mortality is to be reduced.
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This is the second of a two-part report on the pharmaceutical industry. Part II begins with a discussion of foreign direct investment and inter-firm networks, which covers international mergers, acquisitions, and minority participation; market shares of foreign-controlled firms; international collaboration agreements (with a special note on agreements in biotechnology); and licensing agreements. The final section of the report covers governmental policies on health and safety regulation, price regulation, industry and technology, trade, foreign investment, protection of intellectual property, and competition.
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In this report the Labour Party give its view of the current status of the British National Health Service (NHS), and outlines its plans for the NHS under a Labour government. The values underlying the NHS - comprehensive health care, free at the point of use, based on need rather than ability to pay - have been betrayed. The truly national health service, created by a Labour government in 1948, has been replaced by a market-based service led by accountants. ⋯ Under the Tories, the NHS faces a future of privatization, competition, and markets, money wasted on bureaucracy, and the unfairness of a two-tier system. Under Labour, the NHS faces modernization, planned progress, money spent on frontline services, and excellence for all. Labour will follow a model of health care that is patient centered and community led, a properly coordinated and efficient public service.