Funding Health Care

Elias Mossialos is Reader in Health Policy, Department of Social Policy and Co-Director of LSE Health and Social Care at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Care Systems. He has recently co-edited Health Care and Cost Containment in the European Union and Public Health Policies in the European Union.Anna Dixon is a Research Officer of the European Observatory on Health Care Systems and a Research Associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has edited a number of reports on the health care systems of western European countries.Josep Figueras is the head of the Secretariat and a Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Care Systems, and is Regional Adviser for the Health Systems Analysis at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He was co-editor of Critical Challenges for Health Care Reform in Europe.Joe Kutzin is currently working for the World Health Organization in Kyrgyzstan as a health policy advisor. He has over 15 years' experience as a health economist, working with WHO, the World Bank, and as a consultant. He has a Master's Degree in Development Economics from Boston University.

• Notes on contributorsSeries editors' prefaceForewordFunding health carean introductionFinancing health caretaxation and the alternativesSocial health insurance financingHealth financing reforms in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet UnionPrivate health insurance and medical savings accountstheory and experienceVoluntary health insurance in the European UnionUser charges for health careInformal health payments in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Unionissues, trends and policy implicationsLessons on the sustainability of health care funding from low- and middle- income countriesFunding long-term carethe public and private optionsStrategic resource allocation and funding decisionsFunding health care in Europeweighing up the optionsReferencesIndex.