Title: Budget allocation in EU-15 countries operating under tax-financed healthcare systems: the stalemate of the Greek NHS

Authors: Vasileios Vaskantiras, Nikolaos Mastrogiannis, Panagiotis Mitropoulos, Aris Sissouras, Yiannis Mitropoulos

Addresses: Department of Business Planning and Information Systems, Laboratory of Decision Making and Business Planning, Technological Education Institute of Patras, Great Alexander 1, 263 34 Patras, Greece. ' Department of Business Planning and Information Systems, Laboratory of Decision Making and Business Planning, Technological Education Institute of Patras, Great Alexander 1, 263 34 Patras, Greece. ' Department of Business Planning and Information Systems, Laboratory of Decision Making and Business Planning, Technological Education Institute of Patras, Great Alexander 1, 263 34 Patras, Greece. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece. ' Department of Business Planning and Information Systems, Laboratory of Decision Making and Business Planning, Technological Education Institute of Patras, Great Alexander 1, 263 34 Patras, Greece

Abstract: Resource allocation of public funds for healthcare is a major concern for policy makers, especially when resources are distributed on the basis of independent measures of needs and of satisfying equity and efficiency objectives. In order to achieve their equity objectives, the majority of European countries have applied capitation schemes, based on the specific needs of their health districts. The Greek National Health System (NHS) does not apply a capitation scheme for allocating its healthcare resources and continues to distribute on a historical basis. From the academic perspective, a weighted capitation model, which was intended to reduce geographical inequalities in the Greek NHS, has been proposed but has never been applied. Thus, the inefficiency of the current method and the international experience make the need for applying a capitation model for allocating healthcare resources in Greece imperative. In the current paper we review capitation schemes for European Union countries.

Keywords: weighted capitation; resource allocation; Greek NHS; Greece; National Health System; national health service; resource allocation; public funds; healthcare funding; healthcare resources; European Union; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2009.028459

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, 2009 Vol.1 No.3, pp.247 - 257

Published online: 17 Sep 2009 *

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