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Health Policy in East Asia: Objectives, Priorities and Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2020

Gyu-Jin Hwang
Gyu-Jin Hwang*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Social Policy, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article aims to identify how the economies that do not necessarily prioritise social rights in their social policy arrangements fare in achieving various healthcare objectives. The big five of East Asian countries – China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore plus Hong Kong – are considered as such cases. It first highlights a wide range of variations in their healthcare offerings. It then shows that, contrary to the common belief, they constitute a surprisingly high level of redistributive elements in them. Deviating from their overall welfare regime characteristics, each healthcare system presents a unique combination of policy objectives in social, medical, economic and political terms, raising a question of the utility of social rights as a central conceptual lens to understand the world of welfare capitalism.

Keywords

East Asiahealth policypolicy objectivescomparative welfare state
Type
Article
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 599 - 621
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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