In 1985, based on interest at its previous World Congress, IPSA established Study Group #19 that focused on health care policies. Under the leadership of Christa Altenstetter (City University of New York, USA), the Study Group was promoted to become a Research Committee in 1997 at the 17th World Congress in Seoul (Korea) and an Executive Board was elected in 2000 at the 18th World Congress in Quebec City (Canada). 

In 2006 James Warner Bjorkman (Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands) was elected at IPSA's 20th World Congress in Fukuoka (Japan) and re-elected in 2009 to a final three-year term at the 21st World Congress in Santiago de Chile. The Vice-Chairs were Pieter Fourie (University of Pretoria, South Africa) and Jeni Vaitsman (National School of Public Health, Brazil). 

Since then, IPSA RC25 Chairs have included: 

2012-2018 Kieke Okma (Netherlands/USA)

2019-2025 Ryozo Matsuda (Japan)

2025-  Helen Jordan (Australia) and co-chair Haejoo Chung (South Korea)

In 2025, the RC25 Comparative Health Policy changed its title to Politics of Health Policy. 

The RC-25 Poltics of Health Policy aims to advance international scholarly development on the politics, influence and results of health policy, including but not limited to:

  • Comparative analyses of health systems’ governance and regulation: modes of  financing and privatization, corporatist and non-corporatist decision-making, inclusivity and equity in access to care and prevention, trajectories of medicalization;
  • Transnational health policies, governance and goal setting (e.g. Sustainable Development Goals, global risk reduction, international and regional collaboration for health);
  • Social and commercial determinants of health, policy networks and the strategies of key interest groups, evidence-informed health policy, evaluation and the valuing of health and wellbeing;
  • The gains from investments in health care and preventive policies, including those related to OneHealth, Health In All Policies (HiAP), epi/pandemics, and Planetary Health.
  • The links between social cohesion, democracy and population health.

 

 

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Addendum: Archival materials about the history of RC25 can be accessed on its old website at the City University of New York. The previous address is: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ralphbuncheinstitute/RC25%20Web/Index.htm