This pathbreaking book investigates welfare state change in the area of health care - a field widely neglected by comparative welfare state research. While some work on health care expenditure exists, health care rights have not been systematically studied since social rights have exclusively focused on entitlement to cash benefits. Addressing this research gap, Bohm analyses in what way the social right to health care has been modified in the course of general welfare state transformation since the late 1970s.

Katharina Böhm is Junior Professor for health policy and politics at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. She has published on various health policy issues, including priority setting and rationing, Europeanization of health policy and German health policy reforms.

Introduction; The social right to health care and the transformation of the welfare state; Health care entitlement in England; Health care entitlement in Germany; The transformation of the social right to health care; Explaining health care entitlement reforms; Conclusion; Appendix