Universal health care

To inaugurate its fifth year of publication, The American Heart Hospital Journal (AHHJ) focused its Winter 2007 issue on health care systems from around the world, with 8 articles contributed by national leaders in their respective countries. Due to the interest and wide range of expertise in the international cardiac community, we continued to publish Special Reports throughout 2007 on this topic. In this issue we present the final two international perspectives, for a total of 12 individual international perspectives plus a final report from Robert Roberts, MD, that surveys the health care systems of an additional 4 countries, including his own, Canada. Our goal in publishing the series: to highlight the variety of systems currently employed worldwide, in the hope that such an international exchange of commentaries would result in debate and reforms where needed. We welcome your comments on the series, as well as your aspirations and ideas for the future of our national system of health care.