Our glossary helps you understand the terms (issues, process stages, actors, ratings and keywords) used in our surveys. Please choose a term from the drop down menu.
By Government we understand any representative or part of the governing administration at any level of the Executive ? i.e. Office of the President, Chancillor, Prime Minister , Ministry (central level or lower level jurisdiction ? state, region, province, department, municipality), federal or national technical agencies etc.
We use ?parliament? to capture statements, policy papers, draft bills etc. voiced or presented by politicians or parliamentarian groups of either side, belonging to either the majority group or wing of it, or to the political opposition. Again, parliamentary standpoints may be raised by either federal or lowel level chambers.
Political Parties
Providers comprise the large group of medical and non-medical personnel and services: physicians, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, lab technicians, health care facilities (hospitals, clinics, policlinics, health centres), as well as their professional associations or interest groups. Providers can be organized as private or public or corporatistic bodies, a mix of these, and they can be operated as for profit, not-for-profit, governmental, non-governmental etc. institutions.
In our context payers are primarily defined as purchasers of health services, i.e. public (social) or private insurers offering comprehensive or partial, statutory or voluntary coverage. Depending on the health care system, payers can also be the state, local authorities, social services institutions covering determined population groups, charity or welfare organizations, employers contributing to health insurance, as well as households and/or patients paying out-of-pocket.
As opposed to the term ?civil society?, we use the notion of patients to reflect the individual perspective of a person in, before or after a specific treatment situation. Without entering the debate about the appropriate definition, perception or appreciation of a patient as a ?client? or ?consumer?, we do use patient in the broader sense of the word. Patient groups, self-helf-groups, and consumer interest groups therefore fall under this category as well.
The term civil society refers to organized bodies and representative groups of the non-governmental sector of society, i.e. unions, churches, charities, NGOs, minority groups, foundations, etc.
Private sector institutions as we define them here can be: the pharmaceutical industry, producers of medical devices etc., hospital chain holders, professional health management organizations (HMOs), private finance institutions or investors, and others.
Under scientific community we list all public and/or private research institutions (universities, non-university research institutes, think tanks, etc.)
The obvious examples are: World Health Organization, OECD, World Trade Organization, European Commission, etc.
By media we understand all online and offline media, e.g. print, TV, online.
Under individual opinion leaders we capture the input of distinguished personalities with no particular political portfolio, or from outside the health policy field, i.e. Hillary Clinton in the early nineties, ex-ministers or secretaries of state participating in the debate (Horst Seehofer, Rudolf Dressler, etc.), or well-known artists or journalists.
Others Description