Ageing populations, the spread of medical technologies, increased public demands, and escalating costs are producing challenging problems for all health care systems. Some observers suggest that globalization is leading to a convergence towards increasingly similar health policies across countries, while others argue that national differences in institutional structures, culture and patterns of provision and governance ensure continued policy variation. Only through comparative analysis can we answer this question. One objective of this course, therefore, is to examine trends in funding, provision and governance of health care across an array of health systems, including Australia, Britain, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA. After looking at various typologies for categorizing health systems, we will examine the relative emphasis these systems place on the goals of equity (or access), quality, and efficiency and analyze how this affects resource allocation, priority setting and service provision. The second goal of the course is to present various perspectives on current health issues and policies under discussion around the globe. Issues in public health, especially, have become global in nature. In order to illustrate this, we will examine policy issues in communicable disease, the worldwide epidemic of obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, and health problems tied to climate change. Throughout the course an underlying theme is that the predominant “medical model” which places emphasis on acute, curative care must be modified toward a more inclusive model where chronic care and public health (especially health promotion) play larger roles.