[Discussion] HEALTH SECTOR REFORM AND HEALTH INSUR ANCE: OLD CONCERNS AND NEW DIRECTIONS - CALL FOR PAPERS AND INVITATION FOR PARTICIP ATION”

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

HEALTH SECTOR REFORM AND HEALTH INSURANCE: OLD CONCERNS AND NEW 
DIRECTIONS - CALL FOR PAPERS AND INVITATION FOR PARTICIPATION”
Reform in the management and finance of the health sectors is a major 
concern for countries all over the world. Public versus private 
involvement in health care provision is a key debate – one that turns on 
issues of accountability, performance-related budgeting and contracting 
for personnel management, human rights issues of job insecurity and 
exploitation of labor. Who owns the assets? How the prices are estimated 
and resources allocated? Who holds the power for such decisions? The 
pendulum moves between interest groups and politicians versus the open 
market. Other topics to be explored: universal coverage for health care 
services, financial sustainability of health insurance systems, 
maintenance and failure of different insurance systems in Europe, Asia, 
Americas, Africa and Australia. Health care utilization patterns, the 
sustainable financing and maintenance of both preventive and curative 
health services. New directions in the decades to come. Social 
consequences of the collapse of buildings and other man-made accidents 
will also be examined. Please find updated information as regards the 
meeting at the IFSSH website http://www.ifssh.net.
The International Forum for Social Sciences and Health (IFSSH) welcomes 
applications from scholars, administrators, researchers, interested 
parties, international agencies, national and international research 
institutions and students for participation in the 2005 World Congress 
“HEALTH CHALLENGES OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM”. The 2005 World Congress 
aims to realize a universal platform for reflections and forward-looking 
discussions in all important areas that fall under the health social 
science agenda. The world congress will host workshop sessions under the 
following themes: Accidents and disabilities; Adolescent health; 
Bioethics; Bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; Child health, 
development and child rights; Health consequences of war; Communicating 
health knowledge and behavior; Controversies of diet and nutrition; 
Developing economies, migration and emerging health issues; Ecohealth: 
climate change, health consequences of environmental deterioration and 
environmental policies; Ethnobotany and healing; Giving birth: new 
meanings, new statistics; Health and disease in world myths, scripts and 
literature; Health clubs and the new aesthetics of health; Health 
equity; Health social science research methodology; Health sector reform 
and health insurance; Health, medicine and colonialism; Human rights, 
HIV/AIDS and the new epidemics; Infectious diseases; Issues in rural 
health and disease; Life styles; Living with pain; Local traditions of 
healing and shamans; New challenges: smoking, addictions and eating 
disorders; Politics of pharmacueticals; Redefining old age; Reproductive 
health; Social history of health and disease; Social science education 
for health sciences; Sociology of dental health; Suicides and cross 
cultural issues in mental health; The economics of well being; The 
future of hospitals and patient care; The psychology of violence; 
Violence as a public health issue; and Social aspects and prevention of 
world blindness. Please find updated information as regards the meeting 
at the IFSSH website http://www.ifssh.net. We invite you to join this 
interdisciplinary gathering of the experiences and perspectives of 
social scientists and health specialists for a crucial assessment of the 
human condition at the onset of the new millennium.
Prof. Dr. Akile Gürsoy
IFSSH Secretary General
Head, Department of Anthropology
Yeditepe University
Congress Correspondence:
2005 IFSSH Congress Center
Department of Anthropology
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Yeditepe University
Kay?s,dag(?,34755 Istanbul TÜRKI.YE
Tel: (+ 90) 216-578 07 27)
Fax: (+ 90) 216-578 08 99)
E-mail: ifssh.2005@yeditepe.edu.tr
ifssh@ifssh.net
http://www.ifssh.net