Abstract
This article analyses two attributes of health care systems. The first is the continual growth of health expenditure seen right across the western world; and the second is the efficiency of mixed health care systems in select countries, of which combined healthcare financing is one, with significant private and public sector involvement.
The countries that have been selected are the - USA (as the country with the highest influence of the private sector in health care), - France (with its middling influence), and - Japan, where the private sector is allowed input into health care but is very strictly regulated by a zero profit rule. The result is that the systems with greater private sector influence tend to have lesser occupancy, worse quality factors and significantly higher expenditure.
This suggests the hypothesis that the influence of the private sector on health care is negatively correlated to its efficiency. The confirmation or refutal of this hypothesis is left for further more detailed analysis.