Europe’s health systems are facing growing pressure amidst strained public budgets, ageing populations, and increasing treatment costs, prompting urgent questions about the long-term financial sustainability of healthcare.
In response, public payers and national health insurance bodies have implemented a range of cost containment strategies, often focused on managing growing pharmaceutical expenditure. However, these measures can lead to difficult trade-offs between spending public healthcare resources efficiently and ensuring timely patient access to cutting-edge treatments.
This new report by CRA’s Tim Wilsdon, Bhavesh Patel, Artes Haderi, Hannah Armstrong, Iris Lang, and Harvey Feng explores the evolving landscape of commercial health insurance (CHI) in Europe and the extent to which it offers a viable access channel for innovative medicines like CAR-T therapies. CHI, which accounts for around 20% of health spending and is funded by private premiums, plays an increasingly important role alongside public systems. The report highlights the breadth of CHI models, including substitutive, complementary, and supplementary use-cases, each with distinct implications for equity, efficiency, and access to care.
As healthcare systems adapt to new economic and demographic realities, the findings from this report offer timely evidence for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to harness the potential of CHI in improving access to life-changing innovations.
