The policy dialogue looked at the relationships between spending on healthcare and the performance of healthcare systems. The discussion showed that it is not possible to say that more spending on healthcare leads to a better performing healthcare system. Also while the discussion focused on two main indicators of healthcare system performance: the relationship between health spending and life expectancy and health spending and healthy life years, the reality is more complex. The European Commission has set up a group of experts to develop common methodologies on how to assess health performance in EU countries. The aim is to develop expertise for use by EU countries and is not about carrying out any kind of harmonisation. CHES, a joint initiative by the EPC and Johnson & Johnson, aims to promote multi-stakeholder dialogue between health and non-health practitioners on topical issues.