Gesundheitsfonds — effizientere Steuerung des Gesundheitssystems?

In 2009 the German central health fund was implemented. It was the result of a political compromise. One political party intended to equalise the risk structure among 130 different health care funds, and the other wanted to intensify competition and to improve efficiency among the different health insurances. The fund is flanked by a health-based risk adjustment and is aimed at sustainably ensuring the funding of the statutory health insurance system. It also constitutes the basis for competition among statutory health care funds, securing quality and efficiency in health care provision. To cover additional expenditures, health insurers had to charge flatrate premiums. A new law, which will come into effect in January 2015, will oblige health insurers to charge income related contributions. It is not clear how this will change competition among insurers. The federal government will not need to finance subsidies to low income individuals anymore. Income redistribution will only take place within the public health insurance system, exempting the privately insured and public servants from supporting low income individuals. The authors claim that the health care fund will not succeed in its aim of securing a sustainable financial basis for the statutory health insurance system. Most of the authors argue that there is no evidence of greater efficiency thus far, and they offer proposals on how to achieve improved performance.     

Diversification and the failure of new foreign activities

The paper describes a quantitative investigation into the role of diversification in the failure of new foreign manufacturing activities based upon some of the results of the Harvard/CEI Comparative Multinational Enterprise Project. These results are related to the foreign subsidiaries of 69 of the largest continental European multinationals and show a considerable company-to-company spread in the rate of failure. Nearly half of this spread can be accounted for by the differing diversities of the companies when diversity is measured in relation to the marketing characteristics of the products manufactured and when the balance between the differing marketing categories is taken into account. The rate of foreign subsidiary expansion is also significant.     

D-optimal weighing designs for six objects

For all integers m≥6, we determine the maximum value of det X ^T X, where X is an m×6 (0, 1)-matrix, and exhibit (D-optimal) matrices X for which the maximum occurs. For D-optimal matrices X, the uniqueness of the Gram matrix X ^T X is discussed. Received: May 2000     

Die Lösung der Marxschen Antinomie: die Auflösung der marxistischen Theorie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Controversial strategies for the regional advancement of developing countries

The following article outlines the theories of development strategy which approach the subject from the theory of growth and discusses their practical applicability to planning activities in developing countries.     

Mit Thoraxdrainagen richtig umgehen

Zusammenfassung  So unterstützen Sie Arzt und Patient — Thoraxdrainagen sind für viele Pflegende immer wieder eine Herausforderung. Oft herrscht gro?e Unsicherheit darüber, was beim Umgang mit ihnen richtig oder falsch ist.     

A regional social plan for developing countries

The existence of constraints affecting the social services in developing countries is only too obvious. Neither donor nor recipient countries have yet paid sufficient attention to this sphere in the context of development policy. Practicable planning proposals are therefore put forward in the following article for the two sectors of health and education.     

Oppenheimer und seine Kritiker

Ohne Zusammenfassung