The almost overwhelming increase of healthcare expenditure is one of the major obsessions troubling many policymakers and healthcare administrators around the globe, especially now that the whole world is still plagued by an unprecedented economic crisis. The constant growth of healthcare budgets has many and rather reasonable explanations, such as the increasing demand for (quality) care, the enlarged coverage beneath national reforms, the gradual ageing of the worldwide population, indirect costs of managing the system of care, along with the introduction of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, which never come with cheap prices.
