Compare and contrast the role of New Public Management in health care Essay

Compare and contrast the role of New Public Management in health care reform in Germany and the UK from the 1980s onwards - Essay Example The planning of health care reform by the New Public Management (NPM) emphasized several targets including public/ private partnerships and a concern for quality through total quality management (Thomas & Lakhani, 2006: 141). Most reforms and improvements in the health care sector were based on NPM principles and took place during the late 1980s and 1990s, which was the decade of the welfare state retrenchment. New public management principles were considered to be more appropriate for analysing health care reforms than other concepts like privatisation, though NPM emphasizes â€Å"both market-based reforms and the use of private management styles in the public sector† (van Essen, 2005: 3). Since the Second World War, two main types of health care systems have developed in Europe. Firstly the national health service type that is present in the United Kingdom, and secondly a corporatist, insurance-based type of health care system as found in Germany (van Essen, 2005: 7). Health care is not only highly valued by all individuals in society, it is also a social right. Hence, there is a requirement for equal accessibility of health care for all citizens, without exclusion. The undesirability of exclusion and market failures in financing and provision give legitimacy to state intervention in health care. Thus, in order to solve the market failures in health care and and to ensure universal, equal access, two different systems are developed in Europe. In the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), providers are mainly public organizations; for example most hospitals in the U.K. are led by the local governments. On the other hand, in the insurance-based system found in Germany, hospitals and other health care providers can be both public and private organizations. For instance, German hospitals are voluntary organizations which operate on a private basis (van Essen, 2005: 10, 12). The National

Jocelyn Moorhouses How to Make an American Quilt Essay

Jocelyn Moorhouses How to Make an American Quilt - Essay Example However, when she asks Marianna who the latter would marry, Marianna shows her vulnerable side by saying â€Å"I would marry my soul mate† (American Quilt, 1995). Thereby she reveals the incident she has kept with her from her youth: she met a man by chance, and ended up spending the evening with him, only to find out later, after discovering her inner connection with him, that he was married. Marianna has always been brave; she has chosen whichever path her instincts have told her to follow. Perhaps this is why her character is the most colorful out of all the rest, and why she seems to be the most brilliant amongst the members of the quilting bee. Since she has chosen the â€Å"right colors† in the words of Anna (American Quilt, 1995), her life was much enhanced by it. In life, whatever choices we make have a consequence on our personality. A wrong choice does, like Anna says, â€Å"dull the colors and hide the original beauty† (American Quilt, 1995). This message, I would say, resonates in my life. I have always gone by instinct; that is to say, I have always trusted my instincts, without knowing why, and have made choices based on it. One of the reasons I can identify with the character of Marianna in the movie is that, like her, I too follow my hearts desires. This practice has, indeed, enriched my life. I have always been, and still am, my own person. Sometimes this entails going against the grain, however, in the long run, I have noticed, that it always pays to be true to oneself. One has to be brave to stand up to the opposition of one’s peers or your parents, but if one remains true to oneself, I feel one’s life is all the more enriched for that very reason. Just like Marianna in the movie, I can easily say that I have had no regrets in life, because I have always stayed true to myself.