The book takes an in-depth look at health care in OECD countries today. What is the status of people’s health? How do we measure health outcomes? How do we assess the efficiency of health care systems? How are health policies and institutions linked with the performance of health care systems? The chapters explore the answers to such questions. They cover: trends in health care outcomes and spending; ways of assessing efficiency; new indicators of health care policies and institutions; and the characteristics and performance of health care systems.