Regulation and relations between the different participants in the English health care system

Résumé 0

This paper describes the financial regulation of health care in England. It starts with a historical overview, and then summarises the current institutional structure. The main instruments of regulation in the system are then outlined, and the elements of the finance system described. The paper ends with some views on current reforms, suggesting that England offers a fertile source of ideas for other countries interested in options for restructuring their health care systems. However, the English health system is going through a very turbulent period of redesign with many of the arrangements in the process of being changed. As this makes evaluation of the impact of reform problematic, many of the authors’ conclusions are necessarily very tentative.