European Public Health News * President's column * EUPHA office--EUPHA Sections * EUPHA Members 2011 * MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Abstract

In this section of the EJPH , we are pleased to report on European public health. The regular contributions of WHO/EURO and the European Commission are unfortunately missing, as we forgot to communicate the deadline to them. We apologize for this. This section focuses on EUPHA (president's column, EUPHA office column and our 2011 list of members) and the European Public Health Conference. # President's column {#article-title-2} Since the definition of the structures of most European health systems after the Second World War, health costs have been increasing steadily. With regard to European countries, the main factors on which responsibility for this trend is blamed are demographic changes leading to population ageing (with increased co-morbidity), advances in technology with introduction of increasingly expensive equipment, and growing expectations on the part of the population on the efficiency and the quality of care. It is therefore not surprising that cost containment figures prominently in the agenda of health care policymakers. The first consequence of cost pressures is indeed the increase in health care institutions’ deficits; other common consequences are also purely financial, with no significant impact on health-care delivery itself, e.g. partial refunds from health-care providers and/or the pharmaceutical industry to health insurance funds or the government, or reductions in physician fees. However, increase of out-of-pocket payments has today become the most widely employed measure to address increased costs, which has been considered one of the most worrying trends in European health-care policy of the last two decades, because of its impact on access to health care. Out-of-pocket payments increase the exposure of households to financial losses associated with health care, preventing which should be one of the main goals of health systems. Lastly, direct effects on the level of care are reported increasingly often: in recent years, waiting times for a number of services increased …