Financing health care in Europe: Context for the Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes Study

Objective: Exploration of the implications for mental health care of the health care funding environment in Europe, as context for the Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes (SOHO) Study. Method: Data on health care financing for individual countries were sourced by review of the literature and personal communication with European country representatives. Results: The main and complementary sources of health care finance are presented for the 10 European countries participating in the SOHO study. Conclusion: A mixture of tax and social insurance funding mechanisms dominate general health care funding in Europe. These mechanisms in principle promote equity in access to all health care interventions, including those for mental health. However, current resource allocation to mental health care may not reflect fully the impact of mental health disorders. Further work is now under way to examine the contribution of non-health sectors (such as social welfare) to the funding and provision of services.