What is it about?

How does the European Union aspire to shape health policies in its member states? This article shows how the new, complex, apparatus of "fiscal governance" actually involves oversight and detailed interventions into member state decisions about health and health policy.

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Why is it important?

The sheer ambition, the strong commitment to austerity, and the improbability of these policies actually working as intended are all major developments in the EU and affect the sustainability of European health systems- mostly for the worse.

Perspectives

European Union fiscal governance is technically complex, layered with obfuscation, and as a result seems boring. But it involves the member states, led by Germany, obliging the EU institutions to make big, detailed interventions into health care policy far beyond what most politicians ever intended or what voters ever wanted. This article details the theory, which is very committed to austerity, and the practice, which is dispiriting no matter what you think of the objectives.

Dr Scott L Greer
University of Michigan

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: The New Political Economy of Health Care in the European Union, International Journal of Health Services, April 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0020731416637205.
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