What are the characteristics that define a Social Health Insurance system? How is success measured in SHI systems? How are SHI systems developing in response to external pressures? Using the seven Social Health Insurance countries in western Europe - Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland - as well as Israel, this important book reviews core structural and organizational dimensions, as well as recent reforms and innovations.Covering a wide range of policy issues, the book: explores the pressures these health systems confront to be more efficient, more effective, and more responsive; reviews their success in addressing these pressures; examines the implications of change on the structure of SHI's as they are currently defined; and, draws out policy lessons about past experience and likely future developments in SHI systems in a manner useful to policymakers in Europe and elsewhere Social Health Insurance Systems in Western Europe will be of interest to students of health policy and management as well as health managers and policy-makers.Contributors include: Helmut Brand, Jan Bultman, Reinhard Busse, Laurent Chambaud, David Chinitz, Diana M.J.Delnoij, Andre P. den Exter, Aad A. de Roo, Anna Dixon, Isabelle Durand-Zaleski, Hans F.W. Dubois, Josep Figueras, Bernhard Gibis, Stefan Gress, Bernhard J. Guntert, Jean Hermesse, Maria M. Hofmarcher, Martin McKee, Pedro W. Koch-Wulkan, Claude Le Pen, Kieke G.H. Okma, Martin Pfaff, Richard B. Saltman, Wendy G.M. van der Kraan, Jurgen Wasem, Manfred Wildner, and Matthias Wismar.