Preventive health care in six countries: models for reform?

International systems are frequently offered as models for health care reform. This study, focusing on preventive services for children and pregnant women in six industrialized countries, finds that a broad range of preventive services can be provided through health care systems with divergent financing and cost containment, utilizing multiple entry points into the health care system, and employing targeted programs for high-risk patients. Despite variability in form and financing, health outcomes are not compromised, suggesting that health care reformers in this country need not be restricted to any single model to strengthen preventive health care for children and pregnant women.