title: National Initiatives to Improve Healthcare Outcomes: A Comparative Study of Health Delivery Systems in Slovakia and the United States.
abstract: While the United States and Slovakia offer different healthcare delivery systems, each country faces the same challenges of improving the health status of their populations. The authors explore the impact of their respective systems on the health of their populations and compare the health outcomes of both nations. They point out that socioeconomic factors play a far more important role in determining population health outcomes than do the structures of the systems surrounding the care delivery. The authors illustrate this finding through a comparison of the poverty and education levels of a selected minority group from each country in relation to the health outcomes for each population group. The comparison reveals that education is a more influential determinant in a population's health outcomes, than the improved access to care offered by a universal system.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: Anetta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caplanova
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Novak
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D018154:Slovakia; D014481:United States
keywords: Slovak health system; U.S. health system; health expenditures; health outcomes; healthcare systems; socioeconomic factors