This text explores the politics of publicly provided health care, focusing on major countries of Western Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK. Each chapter develops factual comparison and contrast in the context of key ideas in social and political theory. It 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 system. It examines recent changes in the organization of ehalth care as well as recent challenges to public health, including policy responses to AIDS.