In these books, Professors Rice (UCLA) and Toth (Bologna) offer sophisticated, updated, and manageable contributions to the literature comparing health care arrangements across more than a few of what Harold Wilensky (2002) called “rich democracies.”
Although there are some fine comparisons of just a few countries (e.g., Tuohy 1999, 2018), larger comparisons can tell us much more about the range of possibilities and, although often much less appreciated, the relative impossibilities (for example, if none of 10 countries has managed to equalize the supply of doctors in rural and urban areas, maybe that is really hard). Having more cases allows attention to more variables and thus better analysis of both policy and political causes and effects. Yet all but the most motivated readers might be overwhelmed by a very broad set of cases such as in Ellen Immergut and colleagues’ fine 2021 handbook on European health...
