Healthcare System Financing & Policy
This research area focuses on how healthcare systems can be financed and governed in ways that are sustainable, efficient, and socially legitimate, while maintaining high-quality access to care. Across Europe, health systems face increasing pressures from population ageing, rising prevalence of chronic disease, technological change, workforce constraints, and growing expectations about service quality. These trends intensify the central public policy challenge: how to balance financial sustainability, equity, and health outcomes.
The research explores how financing structures and policy choices shape incentives for providers, patients, and payers, and how these incentives influence system performance. Key topics include the design of public and private funding mechanisms, the role of cost-sharing and risk pooling, the alignment of payment models with health outcomes, and the governance arrangements that support accountability and long-term planning. Particular attention is paid to the trade-offs between cost containment and access, and to how systems can improve efficiency without undermining trust or fairness.
A further focus is the evaluation of reforms and policy interventions using transparent evidence and careful consideration of unintended consequences. Rather than advocating for a single model, this research area aims to provide frameworks and empirical insights that help policymakers understand which financing and governance arrangements work best under different conditions — and how to strengthen health system resilience over time.
Projects & Outputs
- National Healthcare Systems in Europe (ongoing project)
- This ongoing research project examines how different healthcare financing models across Europe shape system resilience, sustainability, and measurable performance outcomes. It focuses on the interaction between demographic change, fiscal pressures, and the political economy of healthcare funding, with particular attention to countries that rely heavily on public financing, such as the Czech Republic. A key part of the research explores policy incentives and institutional arrangements that could enable a greater and socially legitimate role for private funding within healthcare systems, without undermining equity and access. Using comparative data from sources such as OECD and Eurostat and applying quantitative methods including microsimulation tools, the project aims to identify vulnerabilities and policy trade-offs that can inform evidence-based reform debates. The project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.