Improving accessibility for outpatients in specialist clinics: reducing long waiting times and waiting lists with a simple analytic approach.

Background: Lack of resources is often cited as a reason for long waiting times and queues in health services. However, recent research indicates these problems are related to factors such as uncoordinated variation of demand and capacity, planning horizons, and lower capacity than the potential of actual resources. This study aimed to demonstrate that long waiting times and wait lists are not necessarily associated with increasing demand or changes in resources.

Which patients receive surgery in for-profit and non-profit hospitals in a universal health system? An explorative register-based study in Norway.

Objectives: To compare the socioeconomic status (SES) and case-mix among day surgical patients treated at private for-profit hospitals (PFPs) and non-profit hospitals (NPs) in Norway, and to explore whether the use of PFPs in a universal health system has compromised the principle of equal access regardless of SES.

Design: A retrospective, exploratory study comparing hospital types using the Norwegian Patient Register linked with socioeconomic data from Statistics Norway by using Norwegian citizens' personal identification numbers.

Setting: The Norwegian healthcare system.

Development of voluntary private health insurance in Nordic countries - An exploratory study on country-specific contextual factors.

The Nordic countries are healthcare systems with tax-based financing and ambitions for universal access to comprehensive services. This implies that distribution of healthcare resources should be based on individual needs, not on the ability to pay. Despite this ideological orientation, significant expansion in voluntary private health insurance (VPHI) contracts has occurred in recent decades.