In this episode we are diving into the topic of healthcare markets together with Simon Reif. He explains to us what makes the healthcare market so special, why its characteristics call for regulation and how systems differ substantially across countries. Focusing on Europe we discuss how, counterintuitively, setting a "global budget" for hospitals leads to poorer service and how generating the right incentives could change the healthcare market for the better in future.

Simon Reif is a health economist heading the research group “Health Markets and Health Policy” at the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany. His research is focused on market structures, reimbursement and digitalization of health care provision.