Abstract
Growing shares of health care sectors in national income in the OECD countries have been observed for decades. Rising demand for health care coupled with medical advances may generate a significant burden on public finance in the ageing Europe in the coming years.
We explore European public health care systems from the perspective of intergenerational solidarity using the generational accounting method. The following countries have been selected as representatives of the European health care systems: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
We conclude that if the growth of demand for health care is to be satisfied and the ratio of taxation remains constant, significant debts in health care will be generated by the current generation. A worse situation was found in systems financed mainly through health insurance or income taxes and in countries with high current expenditure on health.