Health care systems across the European Union face a common challenge: the high cost of health care. Governments strive to ensure that cost pressures do not undermine values such as universal coverage and equitable financing and access.

Focusing on the three health care financing functions: collection, pooling and purchasing, as well as on coverage, this book analyzes the organization of health care financing in the Member States of the European Union, discusses the principal financing reform trends of recent years, and assesses their capacity to help ensure fiscal sustainability.

The book includes a useful annex detailing the health care financing systems of each of the 27 Member States of the European Union. It will inform the deliberations of policy and decision-makers, both within and beyond the European Union, faced with reconciling rising costs with equitable and sustainable health care.