HEALTH CARE IN THE BRICS

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are members of the BRICS nations and deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. Although analysts and decision-makers interested in comparative global health policy in the United States usually turn first to European countries, the BRICS are useful comparisons because of their size, racial and ethnic and geographic diversity, and inherent problems of social inequality. Their smaller gross domestic products and lower per capita expenditures on health care and technological investments, the dominant role of private sector involvement, incremental reforms, and exclusion of a large proportion of the population from health insurance in the BRICS make them more similar to the United States than its European contemporizes. This paper examines the health care systems of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, inclusive of recent policy challenges and developments.