First published in 1999, this volume aims to describe and analyse the experience of cost containment in Europe over the last fifteen years in order to understand that experience and to determine, as best we can, which methods were successful and which were not.

Part 1. 1. Cost Containment in the EU: an Overview. Elias Mossialos and Julian Le Grand. 2. Cost Containment and Health Expenditure in the EU: a Macroeconomic Perspective. Panos Kanavos and John Yfantopoulos. 3. Is There Convergence in the Health Expenditures of the EU Member States? Adelina Comas-Herrera. Part 2. 4. Cost Containment and Health Care Reform in Belgium. David Crainich and Marie-Christine Closon. 5. Health Care and Cost Containment in Denmark. Terkel Christiansen, Ulrika Enemark, Jørgen Clausen and Peter Bo Poulsen. 6. Cost Containment in Germany: Twenty Years Experience. Reinhard Busse and Chris Howorth. 7. Health Car and Cost Containment in Greece. Aris Sissouras, Anthony Karokis and Elias Mossialos. 8. Health Care and Cost Containment in Spain. Guillem Lopez i Casasnovas. 9. Twenty Years of Cures for the French Health Care System. Pierre-Jean Lancry and Simone Sandier. 10. Health Expenditure and Cost Containment in Ireland. Jenny Hughes. 11. Cost Containment and Reforms in the Italian National Health Service. Giovanni Fattore. 12. Health Care and Cost Containment in Luxembourg. Elias Mossialos. 13. Developments in Health Care Cost Containment in the Netherlands. Mirjam van het Loo, James P. Kahan and Kieke G. H. Okma. 14. Health Expenditure and Cost Control in Austria. Engelbert Theurl. 15. Health Care Reform and Cost Containment in Portugal. João Pereira, António Correia de Campos, Francisco Ramos, Jorge Simões and Vasco Reis. 16. Cost Containment in Finnish Health Care. Unto Häkkinen. 17. Health Care Reforms and Cost Containment in Sweden. Anders Anell and Patrick Svarvar. 18. Cost Containment and Health Care Reforms in the British NHS. Giovanni Fattore.