ABSTRACT
This book seeks to locate current health policy issues within the broader context of shifts in government policy and public sector restructuring. It thus places health policy analysis within the changing State and the issues of citizenship and rights this inevitably raises. Framing such debates in terms of citizenship is a useful means of locating the State in relation to issues of rights, obligations and the citizen’s capacity to exercise the full dimensions of civil, political, social and economic citizenship. Central to this book is the belief that the health care system can be improved. One avenue to such improvement is the application of criteria against which the adequacy of health policies, programs and services might be evaluated. Health is central to wellbeing and is recognised as a fundamental and, indeed, a human right in international declarations.
