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All countries share similar goals for their health care system, and yet differ significantly in their reliance upon market forces to plan, organize, and finance their clinical workforce. The differences in the respective roles of the marketplace and the public sector reflect countries political and economic environments as well as their traditions of social welfare. The number of physicians, income, professional standing, and clinical care are influenced by the extent and type of competitive markets. In this session, papers will discuss the role of health care markets in the clinical workforce through examining for each country the underlying economic assumptions and political environments. The performance of the differing approaches will be evaluated to understand what works and fails. The papers will consider the impact of these approaches on the major stakeholders of the health care system - patients, payers, and providers.