ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at China's health care performance in the context of countries at roughly the same stage of economic development. Analysing the evolutionary history of Europe's component states - and their patterns of policy change over time - may therefore provide some clues about China's future. In trying to 'place' China in an international comparative context, there is a paradox. If performance is to be judged by outcomes, then China is a reasonable success story. China has the ambition of emulating the economic performance of the 'tiger economies' - Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong — it is not surprising that it is also tempted to follow their social policies. The key point is that countries marched at different speeds, and sometimes to a different tune, towards the goal of providing comprehensive health care coverage. Public finance and public provision is the dominant norm in the Scandinavian countries and the UK.
