Description

Healthcare reform is not on the cards in Belgium today. The policy emphasis has been and still remains essentially budgetary. Therefore, for a coherent policy approach to be developed, we must identify trends and challenges first. Based on these a suggestion of possible policy options will be made. A pragmatic and realistic approach – we do not have the luxury of ideology or romanticism – can be taken seriously only if the priorities and limits of promising solutions are defined. The purpose of this article is to offer some food for thought on real healthcare policy reform in Belgium, based on the stated necessity of such reform. Our purpose is not to provide a comprehensive or academic analysis, but rather to indicate – with a bird’s eye view for the big picture – the unmistakable trends and future challenges that are upon us and to draw the plain conclusions they suggest.