Read all posts for ‘Central and Eastern Europe’

As societies in Europe become older, Central European countries and EU member states as a whole need to find out if they want, and are able to sustain, the state welfare system inherited from the 20th century in a world of global competition. During the 1980s there was a proverb […]

Global healthcare spending has increased faster than global economic growth. This faster pace of growth is due to the lack of effective economic and health policy-making but is also driven by the global economic crisis and the growing number of people using health services. When it comes to healthcare, all […]

“My mom called me in the middle of the day and said that I should come home immediately because some strangers had brought my father back after he collapsed in the street,” a very close friend told me. “So I took a taxi. When I arrived home, my older sister […]

Healthcare reform has triggered many controversies in Romania ranging from street protests in January 2012 over a new healthcare bill to massive online activism just a year later against government plans to prevent citizens from using their mandatory health insurance in private hospitals. To be really honest and without being […]

In spite of the recent downturn in the economy, Hungary is still considered a welfare state. Political statements echo this view, claiming that healthcare is for free. The moves by the former government, which tried to implement a “visit fee” of one Euro to help finance healthcare, are often criticized, […]