The development and implementation of health policy: New Zealand and Hong Kong compared

Contemporary health sector reform is frequently underpinned by market-influenced public policy "prescriptions." Such prescriptions provide details of what policies ought to look like, but little by way of how they should be implemented. This article compares the experience of New Zealand and Hong Kong, two locations in which recent health reforms were based upon the policy prescription. Where the respective health policies bear similarities, implementation styles differ with interesting consequences. New Zealand's apparent "success" in implementation may ultimately prove counterproductive; it seems more likely that Hong Kong, whose implementation success has been, to date, moderate, will achieve objectives of providing a better public health service.