[Comparison of public health systems within the European Community]

Only two out of three ideal types of health care systems can be observed in the European Community (EC): Centrally planned systems (countries with a national health service) and systems managed mainly by associations of health insurance funds and also of providers (countries with a social insurance system). We find no country with a market-type health care system in Europe. Both types of systems occurring in the EC are compared with each other, both with regard to their ideal types and also to their actual operations when judged on grounds of financing and production of health care. When seen as ideal types, we note considerable differences. Real types however exhibit only gradual differences. The shares of major subcategories of health spending differ widely between EC countries. These differences, however, cannot be attributed to the different health care systems. Similar observations can be made regarding different forms of payment for hospital care and for physician services and also regarding the share of total health expenditure in GDP.