Reforming health care in Europe

The wave of health care reform which has come over the systems of Western E urope in recent years is partly prompted by fiscal imperatives. But both th e intensity and the direction of reform are shaped by other factors both by the internal characteristics of health care systems as well as by the char acter of surrounding economic and political systems. As a result, reforms u sually described in the language of market liberalism actually involve a co mplex mixture of market reforms and state intervention.