The contents of this book

The next chapter – chapter two – iden ti fies some of the key consequences of the finan cial and economic crisis in Europe, high light ing its effects on house-hold finances, govern ment spend ing and health expendit ure in the short- term.

The authors briefly summar ize the impact of the crisis on people in terms of high levels of private debt, rising unem ploy ment and falling incomes. They then set out the impact of declin ing GDP, rising govern ment defi cits, higher levels of public debt and higher borrow ing costs on the size of govern ment and the alloc a tion of govern ment resources. The final sections of the chapter focus on how the crisis has affected public and private spend ing on the health system.

Chapters three, four and five discuss the results of the survey and find ings from the case studies. In contrast to chapter two, which exam ines the outcome

of policy responses to the crisis – their impact on health spend ing – chapter three analyses the nature of these responses. It looks at the many differ ent ways in which coun tries made changes to public funding for the health system, includ ing meas ures to reduce or slow the growth of health budgets, efforts to mobil ize revenue and steps to protect employ ment or poorer people. To assess the impact of these changes on the adequacy of public spend ing on health, the authors consider both the magnitude of reduc tions in funding and levels of funding at the onset of the crisis. The authors also review the role of auto matic stabil isers – built- in coun ter cyc lical mech an isms such as reserves – and reflect on whether health systems financed through earmarked contri bu tions demon-strate greater stabil ity, in the face of an economic shock, than those financed through the govern ment budget.

Chapter four reviews changes to health cover age intro duced in response to the crisis. Coverage has three dimen sions: the share of the popu la tion entitled to publicly financed health services, the range of services covered, and the extent to which people have to pay for these services at the point of use (WHO 2010). It is a major determ in ant of finan cial protec tion. Coverage restric tions shift respons ib il ity for paying for health services onto indi vidu als and may there fore delay care seeking, increase finan cial hard ship and unmet need, exacer bate inequal it ies in access to care, lower equity in finan cing and make the health system less trans par ent. In turn, finan cial barri ers to access can promote inef fi cien cies by skewing resources away from need or – for example – encour aging people to use resource- intens ive emer gency services instead of cost- effect ive primary care. A key ques tion for policy, there fore, is if it is possible to restrict cover age without under min ing health system perform ance.

Chapter five analyses changes to health service plan ning, purchas ing and deliv ery. The way in which these func tions are carried out has a direct bearing on effi ciency, quality and access (WHO 2000; Figueras et al. 2005). Because the supply side is also the primary driver of health system costs, it should be the focus of efforts to control spend ing (Hsiao and Heller 2007). This involves paying close atten tion to how resources are alloc ated and to the mix of finan-cial and non- finan finan-cial incent ives purchasers and providers face. In response to fiscal pres sure, poli cy makers may look for imme di ate savings by cutting spend-ing on admin is tra tion, staff and services, or by limit spend-ing invest ment in infra-struc ture, equip ment and train ing. The ques tion is whether spend ing cuts can achieve savings without under min ing effi ciency, quality and access, espe cially if they are made in response to an economic shock, when decisions may need to be taken quickly, with restric ted capa city, and when main tain ing access is import ant.

An economic shock also presents an oppor tun ity to strengthen the health system if it makes change more feas ible and if policy actions system at ic ally address under ly ing weak nesses in health system perform ance, based on two prin ciples: ensur ing that spend ing cuts and cover age restric tions are select ive, so that short- term savings do not end up costing the system more in the longer term, and linking spend ing to value (not just price or volume) to identify areas in which cuts can enhance effi ciency by lower ing spend ing without adversely affect ing outcomes.

14 Economic Crisis, Health Systems and Health in Europe

In chapter six, the authors review what is now a substan tial body of research explor ing how chan ging economic condi tions affect health. They begin by looking at evid ence from earlier reces sions and then focus on emer ging evid ence from the current crisis. The avail able data requires careful inter pret a tion because the full scale of any effects on health may not be appar-ent for many years and, due to the poten tial overlap of effects, it is diffi cult to disen tangle the consequences of the crisis itself from the consequences of policy responses to the crisis. For this reason, the authors do not attempt to distin guish between the effects of the crisis and effects related to policy responses to the crisis. The chapter includes a discus sion of some of the main factors likely to mitig ate negat ive effects on health.

Chapter seven draws on the previ ous chapters to summar ize the effects of health system responses to the crisis on the follow ing dimen sions of perform-ance: stabil ity, adequacy and equity in funding the health system; finan cial protec tion and equit able access to health services; and effi ciency and quality in health service organ iz a tion and deliv ery. In discuss ing implic a tions for effi-ciency, the chapter distin guishes between savings and effi ciency gains. It iden ti fies policies that may enable health systems to do the same or more with fewer resources, result ing in both savings and effi ciency gains. It also iden ti fies policies likely to lower health system outputs and outcomes without gener at ing either savings or effi ciency gains. The book concludes by bring ing together the book’s key find ings and policy implic a tions and high light ing lessons for the future.

The analysis in this book covers the period between the onset of the crisis in Europe in late 2008 and Ireland’s exit from its EU- IMF economic adjust ment programme at the end of 2013. In spite of some improve ment in the economic situ ation in Europe since then, the crisis contin ues to make itself felt. There is little reason to be optim istic when we consider the long- term social consequences of falling incomes, growing inequal it ies and massive increases in unem ploy-ment, partic u larly among younger people. As we noted at the begin ning of the chapter, this book is only one part of a wider initi at ive to monitor the effects of the crisis on health systems and health. Those inter ested in ongoing analysis will find updates through the Health and Crisis Monitor of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies⁴ and the website of the Division of Health Systems and Public Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.⁵

Notes

1 Throughout this book the term ‘Europe’ refers to the 53 coun tries in WHO’s European Region, which includes Israel and the central Asian repub lics.

2 The Health Systems and Policy Monitor (HSPM) network, an inter na tional group of high- profile insti tu tions with a pres ti gi ous repu ta tion and academic stand ing in health systems and policy analysis. For more inform a tion see www.hspm.org

3 See the appendix for further details of how we carried out the survey and produced the case studies.

4 www.hfcm.eu

5 www.euro.who.int/en/health- topics/Health- systems

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