Trends In Eu Health Care Systems

The nations of the EU have long led the world in universal health coverage. Recent economic developments have created problems ranging from inequities of care to growing numbers of uninsured — a progression analyzed by Win de Gooijer in Trends in EU Health Care Systems. His ideas may be startling, and the book is bound to be controversial. This is critical reading for health care managers and policymakers, politicians and insurors - anyone looking to Europe to understand this far-reaching evolution.

This volume explores the central issues driving the present process of healthcare reform in Europe. 17 chapters written by scholars and policy makers from all parts of Europe draw together the available evidence from epidemiology and public health, economics, public policy, organizational behaviour and management theory as well as real world policy making experience, laying out the options that health sector decision-makers confront. Through its cross-disciplinary, cross-national approach, the book highlights the underlying trends that now influence health policy formulation across Europe. An authoritative introduction provides a broad synthesis of present trends and strategies in European health policy.

This book analyses recent reform trends of European health care systems. Using eight European countries case studies it connects policy reforms with a healthcare quadrilemma, and compares how well these systems perform in terms of economic efficiency, medical achievements, social inequalities, and responsiveness to patients and workers.

People have always travelled within Europe for work and leisure, although never before with the current intensity. Now, however, they are travelling for many other reasons, including the quest for key services such as health care. Whatever the reason for travelling, one question they ask is "If I fall ill, will the health care I receive be of a high standard?" This book examines, for the first time, the systems that have been put in place in all of the European Union's 27 Member States. The picture it paints is mixed. Some have well developed systems, setting standards based on the best available evidence, monitoring the care provided, and taking action where it falls short. Others need to overcome significant obstacles.

Good health can be considered one of the most fundamental resources for social and economic prosperity. While the goal to improve average levels of population health is important, there has been an increasing focus on disparities at national and European levels. Improvements have been seen over the past few decades in both health status and living and working conditions has widened tremendously in the European Union (EU) and will continue to do so as it goes through the enlargement process. The diversity in living conditions has translated into diversity in patterns of health across the region. Inequalities in income, education, housing and employment affect population health, both directly (for example, good housing reduces risks associated with poor health) and indirectly through psychosocial factors (such as stress). From the life course perspective, individuals are affected by different sets of risks related to disease and illness; certain diseases and causes of health are more likely to affect young people, whereas the majority are associated with older ages. Investigating differences in health status within and between European countries provides the focus of this report. The relationship between living conditions, socioeconomic factors and health is discussed and analysed with the objective of stimulating a debate and policy action for creating a healthier and more equitable society. We aim to present an overview of key issues and not comprehensive literature review or exhaustive analysis of the topics involved.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

The report includes a selection of eight countries representing the diversity of international experience of both funding and delivering health care. Denmark and Sweden represent the decentralised systems of health care funding and delivery common to Scandinavia. Germany and the Netherlands provide examples of social health insurance systems combined with private health insurance for high-income earners. France illustrates a more centralised model of social health insurance, offering universal coverage and with a mixturc of public, private non-profit and for-profit providers. Australia and New Zealand have predominandy tax-financed systems of health care -with differing degrees of decentralisation and privatisation of provision. The country reports have all been written following a standard template. This identified six key questions to be addressed: - Who benefits and what are the benefits? - Who pays and how much? - Who collects the money and where does it go? - How much is spent and on what? How do patients access services? That are the major challenges facing the health care system? Each country case study stands alone as a summary of the key features of the health care system in that country.

Health care and its financing will not be harmonized within the European Union (EU). Therefore, the differences between the health systems of the member-states in a Single European Market are gaining in relevance. The process of economic integration also effects health. This book integrates economics, law, social, political and health sciences in the analysis of health care issues in the EU. It covers the development of health systems and policy in the community, the markets for pharmaceuticals and for medical devices, EU-trends in hospital financing, issues in the comparison of financing systems, especially in the field of private expenditures, reforms of health care financing in social security systems and national health services in the EU and cross-border health care between EU member-states. The results feature an up-to date overview on the European dimension of health care and its financing. The book is relevant to experts in health care organizations, policy, industry and research.