Ferenc Bárányi

Health insurance and reform in Romania

The law of health insurance (145/1997) conceived according to the German model has radically changed health financing in Romania. This is a good law, however the financing opportunities are rather few. The 3% of Romania’s income as well as the autonomy of the health insurance houses have brought the system to the brink of collapse – lack of medicines, huge hospital debts, ill-paid medical staff.

The Romanian Parliament has recently voted a packet of 17 laws to further on medical reformation with a view to join the European Union. The author makes a critical analysis of the reformation packet and expresses but moderate optimism.

András Kiss

Graduated in Marosvásárhely/Targu-Mures, 1960

The author reviews the careers of 127 qualified (ethnic Hungarian) doctors from their gradation in 1960 in Maros-vásárhely/Targu-Mures until their 45th reunion in 2005. 41 of them have remained general practitionners. The others have worked as clinical or mainly pre-clinical specialists. 6 have become Head of their respective departments and two have become university professors. 24 left for Hungary, 17 for Germany and two for Sweden.

Péter Kovalszki

Healthcare reform in the United States

After a short presentation of the main characteristics and history of healthcare in the USA, the author reviews the financial situation of healthcare insurance, its main components, the unraveling of employer-based insurance, and the state of federally-founded programs for the elderly and poor, along with the consumer-directed health savings account (HSA) initiative. He discusses the various healthcare reform initiatives, the case for a single-payer system and the political chances of its implamentation.

François Sauvagnat

Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, or the other side of the anxiety

The author contends that Freud’s concept of anxiety, especially as developed in Das Unheimliche, did not only find its models in German romanticism as it is often believed. He shows that the conclusion of Das Unheimliche relies heavily on Nestroy’s Posse Das Zerrissene, a play strongly inspired by the French théatre de boulevard. The author shows that this approach could be seen as an attempt to unravel the unconscious mechanisms of anxiety and a critical view of the romantic fascination for uncanny themes. A similar strategy is also obvious in Freud’s specific use of at least two other plays by JN Nestroy: Judit und Holophernes, eine Hülkparodie (to discuss the taboo of virginity and the psychology of the masses) and Zu ebener Erde und erster Stock, oder die Launen des Glückes (to discuss the issue of the end of the cure).