This is the first general comparative study of health policy and politics to focus on major countries of Western Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK. The book begins by identifying differences in arrangements for the finance, delivery and regulation of health care in different countries, explaining how health systems are to be understood as political entities. The book describes and accounts for the evolution of state intervention in the health sector before comparing and contrasting different kinds of systems. It examines recent changes in the organization of health care as well as recent challenges to public health, including policy responses to AIDS.