Global Budget for Cyprus' National Health System: The Promised Land or a No Man's Land?

Background: Soaring health expenditures worldwide call for potent cost-containment approaches. Global budgets have been used by several countries to harness their health expenditures by constraining the total payable amount to a predefined budget threshold. Objectives: Cyprus is vacillating on the use of a global budget for its National Health System; nevertheless, its attributes must be scrutinized to rule out potential adverse effects on quality of care and access of patients. The delegation of budget across providers is a context-sensitive process and as such it must be based on historical data and performance incentives as well. Conclusions: A global budget is not a panacea, and consequently the enhancement of health system's performance, appropriateness assessment, and volume and capacity control measures are incumbent. A global budget demonstrates a higher complexity factor for pharmaceuticals, which mandates a thorough assessment of pharmaceuticals before their reimbursement and elaboration of measures to safeguard timely access to innovation.