Health care cost containment strategies: the Jordanian experience.

Jordan's relative success in containing costs is the result of public financing of the health insurance system, the health care system reform strategy, and expanding the primary care network, which allows for cost containment and universal access based on the need for services rather than the ability to pay. The shift of costs from the public to the private sector must be curtailed. The determinants of health care (i.e. environment; human biology; life style; and health care system) are the main factors that determine future spending on health.