This is Volume II of the comprehensive review of national health systems of the world presented in Volume I. In that volume, the author analysed the organization, financing, management, and delivery of health services in 68 countries at diverse levels of economic development and political ideology. In Volume II, the principal issues in health systems across countries are examined. The issues are categorized according to the several components by which national health systems may be analysed. They include such issues as the role of traditional healers, the scope of Ministries of Health, Social Security financing, commercial health insurance, methods of cost-containment, strategies of planning, legislation on health promotion, concepts of primary health care, control of sexually-transmitted diseases, emergency medical services, and many other controversial topics. The elucidation of these issues is designed not to provide answers, but to provoke discussion.