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Health Reforms in South East Europe: An Introduction

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Health Reforms in South East Europe

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the health systems of South East Europe (SEE) have undergone far-reaching reforms, triggered by the search for more effective and efficient health care provision, attempts to introduce new sources of revenues, upward cost pressures associated with new technologies and population ageing, and the overall context of transition from socialist to market economies. Deteriorating population health in the early 1990s was another major concern, with life expectancy decreasing in several countries of the region due to the economic collapse in the early years of transition, the effects of war and conflict in the Yugoslav successor states, and a breakdown in basic health services (Adeyi et al. 1997; Rechel et al. 2004; Rechel and McKee 2006).

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© 2012 Will Bartlett, Jadranka Božikov, and Bernd Rechel

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Bartlett, W., Božikov, J., Rechel, B. (2012). Health Reforms in South East Europe: An Introduction. In: Bartlett, W., Božikov, J., Rechel, B. (eds) Health Reforms in South East Europe. New Perspectives on South-East Europe Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137264770_1

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