Michaela Pfeifer

The last safety net : a handbook of minimum income protection in Europe

Introduction Defining and measuring minimum income protection Welfare state contexts Country analyses Comparative analyses Conclusion.

Confidence in receiving medical care when seriously ill: a seven-country comparison of the impact of cost barriers.

Objective  This paper examines how negative experiences with the health‐care system create a lack of confidence in receiving medical care in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Welfare States and Public Opinion

Welfare States and Public Opinion comprises an informed inquiry into three fields of social policy – health policy, family policy, and unemployment benefits and social assistance. Though the analyses stem from research spanning fifteen countries across Europe, the conclusions can be applied to social policy problems in nations worldwide. Combining a detailed analysis of the institutional structure of social policy with the study of public attitudes toward healthcare, family policy, and benefits for the unemployed and poor, this book represents a new stream in public opinion research. The authors demonstrate that the institutional designs of social policies have a great impact on inequalities among social groups, and provide best practices for gaining public support for social policy reform.

Cost barriers reduce confidence in receiving medical care when seriously ill.

People need to trust that necessary care will be provided in the case of serious illness or injury, but negative experiences with the healthcare system reduce confidence. In this article, we discuss the effect of cost barriers on peoples confidence in receiving safe and quality medical care when falling seriously ill in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Categorical Differentiation in the Light of Deservingness Perceptions: Institutional Structures of Minimum Income Protection for Immigrants and for the Disabled

Minimum income protection (MIP) provides cash benefits of last resort for people in need. It is the generosity of these means-tested social assistance benefits and thus their capacity to ameliorate or even eradicate poverty that most often draws the attention of both scientists and policymakers (Nelson, 2003, 2010; Cantillon, Van Mechelen and Schulte, 2008). Indeed, benefit levels are a crucial dimension for poverty alleviation. In order to be eligible for benefits, however, individuals usually have to fulfil a number of conditions. Such criteria of eligibility may vary for different groups of recipients, leading to categorically differentiated systems of MIP or specific treatment of certain recipient groups within one MIP scheme.