Priorities Health Care

This book examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This voume explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

The Austrian economy has weathered the crisis well on the back of an export-led recovery. The authorities should seize the opportunity to strengthen reforms and maintain high growth, which in the past has been considerably boosted by European integration effects which are likely to fade out in the future.