Intended to be a vehicle for the exploration and discussion of health policy and health system issues and is aimed in particular at enhancing communication between health policy and system researchers, legislators, decision-makers and professionals concerned with developing, implementing, and analysing health policy, health systems and health care reforms, primarily in high-income countries outside the U.S.A.

The journal encourages the submission of short, full-length, comparative and review articles (as well as groups of articles in "special sections") which address:

1. What is happening in terms of policies, reforms, regulation etc. of health systems;
2. Where the ideas are coming from, i.e. whether they are "imported" from another country or developed within the country, and how innovative they are they in comparison to other countries;
3. Why it is happening, e.g. as a consequence of a change in government, popular dissatisfaction or (perceived) unsustainable cost increases, and what are the objectives;
4. The actors involved (both governmental as well as non-governmental), incl. their roles, their opinions and their strength in the decision and implementation process;
5. Intended and, especially, unintended effects of these policies or reforms on the health system in terms of access, appropriateness, costs, effectiveness, quality, patient experience and equity etc.;
6. Their final consequences in terms of health outcomes, financial protection and responsiveness to the population's legitimate expectations, i.e. a performance assessment of reforms and health systems.

Publishing frequency: Monthly