European healthcare systems are under enormous strain due to budget constraints and demographics. Paying for it remains one of the existential dilemmas facing European governments.

Four leading experts, Josep Figueras, Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Francesca Colombo, Acting Head of Health Division at the OECD, Nicola Bedlington, Executive Director of the European Patients’ Forum, and Francesco Briganti, Director of the European Association of Paritarian Institutions, discussed the various practices in paying for healthcare across the EU. The presentations and subsequent discussion, led by Hans Martens, Chair of CHES and an EPC Senior Adviser, included commentary regarding public over private financing of healthcare, how healthcare spending can be improved and spent more efficiently, and the overarching issue of universal coverage and what that means in today’s slimmed down socialised healthcare world.