Health Economics, Policy and Law 
Volume 7 – Special Issue 01 – January 2012
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=HEP&tab=currentissue

Special Focus Issue
Back to the future: 10 years of European health reforms
Anna Dixon and Emmi Poteliakhoff
Health Economics, Policy and Law / Volume 7 / Special Issue 01, pp 1 – 10
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012
Published online: 05 January 2012
DOI:10.1017/S1744133111000247

Abstract
The challenges facing European health systems have changed little over 30 years but the responses to them have. Policy ideas that emerged in some countries spread to others; however, the way policies were implemented and the impact they have had has been shaped by specific national contexts. Comparative policy analysis has evolved in response to this, moving away from simple classifications of health systems and crude rankings to studies that try and understand more deeply what works, where and why. For policymakers interested in how other countries have dealt with common challenges, it is important that they avoid the naïve transplantation of policy solutions but understand the need to translate policies to fit the institutional context of a particular country. Policies that cross borders will necessarily be shaped by the social and political institutions of a country. These dimensions should not be ignored in comparative research. The next decade will require health systems to deliver improved care for people with complex needs while at the same time delivering greater value. Policymakers will benefit from looking backwards as well as to their neighbours in order to develop appropriate policy solutions.

Observations
The role of comparative health studies for policy learning
Richard B. Saltman

The folly of cross-country ranking exercises
Adam Oliver

The unwritten rules of cross-national policy analysis
Theodore Marmor

Shall we dance? The intricate project of comparison in the study of health policy
Carolyn H. Tuohy

Articles
Reflections on the evolution of health technology assessment in Europe
Corinna Sorenson and Kalipso Chalkidou

Choice policies in Northern European health systems
Karsten Vrangbaek, Ruth Robertson, Ulrika Winblad, Hester Van de Bovenkamp and Anna Dixon

Paying for hospital care: the experience with implementing activity-based funding in five European countries
Jacqueline O’Reilly, Reinhard Busse, Unto Häkkinen, Zeynep Or, Andrew Street and Miriam Wiley

The rise of the regulatory state in health care: a comparative analysis of the Netherlands, England and Italy
Jan-Kees Helderman, Gwyn Bevan and George France

Overcoming fragmentation in health care: chronic care in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands
Ellen Nolte, Cécile Knai, Maria Hofmarcher, Annalijn Conklin, Antje Erler, Arianne Elissen, Maria Flamm, Brigit Fullerton, Andreas Sönnichsen and Hubertus J. M. Vrijhoef