Health-Care Systems: Lessons from the Reform Experience
There is some evidence that supply of health services has become more efficient, particularly in the hospital sector. Governments have imposed tighter constraints on capital spending on new hospitals, often making them conditional on further restructuring of existing supply. Nonetheless, a high level of acute-care beds per capita in a few countries in 2000 suggests that there may still be some scope for further adjustment (such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and the Slovak Republic). A range of measures, such as better payment methods, have improved the microeconomic incentives facing providers. However, introducing improved incentives through a more competitive environment among providers and insurers has proved difficult.
