Health policy in times of austerity—A conceptual framework for evaluating effects of policy on efficiency and equity illustrated with examples from Europe since 2008

The objective of this paper is to provide a framework for evaluation of changes in health policy against overarching health system goals. We propose a categorisation of policies into seven distinct health system domains. We then develop existing analytical concepts of insurance coverage and cost-effectiveness further to evaluate the effects of policies in each domain on equity and efficiency. The framework is illustrated with likely effects of...