"Health for all by the year 2000": a mere slogan or a workable formula?

In the last decade WHO launched its world-wide Health for All by the Year 2000 (HFA 2000) campaign. This has also been picked up by the WHO European Region and by individual countries within that region. In this context The Netherlands has started up work on a Health 2000 Report. In this article, the work on this report and its underlying model are carefully reviewed in the light of the HFA 2000 strategy, and the HFA 2000 goal is evaluated in the light of the health problems Western European countries are controlled with. The conclusion is that all three main elements of the HFA 2000 strategy are useful for long term health planning efforts in the European Region. Health for All by the Year 2000 is not a mere slogan but has proved to be a workable formula.