This course aims to analyze the origins, developments, and current challenges of modern health systems through comparing and identifying the similarities and differences (and their implications) of the health systems in multiple states. In PART I, we will adopt the analytic framework with a sociopolitical perspective that emphasizes the cultural patterns, socioeconomic status, and political institutions that the health systems rooted in. Particularly, we will focus on a typical normative presumption of most of the modern publicly funded health systems, that is, social solidarity.

PART II starts with the discussion of the prototypes of modern health systems, namely the social health insurance (SHI) model originated from Germany and the national health service (NHS) model from the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries. We will also cover the “Chimera” health system that is unique to its counterparts in other developed countries in the United States.

PART III turns our sights back to the late-developing health systems in Asia. We will start with Japan, one that earliest adopted the social health insurance with the exceptional bureaucratic capacity. South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand went through the major expansion reforms towards universal health coverage along with democratization; however, what turned out were different. Singapore, which bluntly upholds “Asian Values” as the core principle of health system, is one interesting case ought not to be neglected. Lastly, China, once succeeded to the communist ideals, has now gone through the roughest health reforms towards privatization.

In PART IV, the course concludes with the discussion of current challenges of health systems, including the boundary problem questioning the membership of health politic, the intrinsic conflicts between sustainable health systems and democracy, and the possibility of a human solidarity in health that extends beyond the borders and generations.