All rights reserved, or can we just copy? Cost sharing arrangements and characteristics of health care systems

In most European countries cost sharing has been introduced in order to red uce the demand for care. Different forms of cost sharing are available, but because of historically grown system characteristics and prevailing values countries differ in the application of specific forms. This review focuses on eighteen European countries, and on the combinations of health system c haracteristics and present forms of cost sharing. We found that some combin ations are more present: different payment systems for primary care physici ans go together with different forms of cost sharing, different services ha ve different forms of cost sharing. In countries with a GP as gatekeeper no charges are in use for the GP. No distinct relationship could be found bet ween the financing system (tax-based or insurance-based) and the form of co st sharing or the exclusion of vulnerable populations. It is concluded that there are two ways of filtering 'unnecessary' demand. One is by introducin g cost sharing for directly accessible services such as GPs. The second way is by having GPs act as gatekeepers to more specialized, and more costly c are. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.