The time for cost-effectiveness in the new European Union member states: the development and role of health economics and technology assessment in the mirror of the Hungarian experience

Sophisticated methodology and research centres of health economics and health technology assessment were established in the developed countries over the past 30 years, releasing more and more studies of better and better quality every year. A crucial factor in health policy and reimbursement decisions in these countries is cost-effectiveness results. Due to methodological diversification, results of locally performed health economics studies are constrained in international utility. This fact encourages us to set the current goal of greatest importance, i.e. to standardise country-specific methods, thereby promoting transferability and adaptability of results, being backed by each important health care organisation all over Europe. The situation in the new member states [European Union (EU)12] is profoundly different compared with EU15. In these countries, neither the necessary research institutions nor professionals are in place in sufficient numbers; even in most EU12 countries, the importance of cost-effectiveness has not yet been realised. The present study focuses mainly on the EU12. These countries are absolutely dependent on cost-effectiveness results from abroad, and this seems to persist in the long-term. Transferability and adaptability of the results of health economics studies carried out elsewhere through European collaboration is vital for these countries.