This study, The changing national role in health system governance. A case-based study of 11 European countries and Australia, is from European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and studies 12 countries providing an overview of recent changes in national governments’ role in the governance of health systems, focusing on efforts to reconfigure responsibilities for health policy, regulation and management; the resultant policy priorities; and the initial impact.

The shift in responsibilities shows little uniform direction: a number of countries have centralized certain areas of decision-making or regulation but decentralized others. The study reviews common trends, based on the country cases, and assesses potential future developments.