Regulation and selection of patients

During the past decades health legislation and regulation have been on the increase in most industrialized countries. The growing role of government in the provision and financing of health care, the need to correct given aspects of health care and the mandate to protect the underprivileged have been some of the many reasons for increased regulation. Different regulatory approaches and their respective advantages and disadvantages are reviewed in this paper. Particular attention is given to the crucial issue of how to regulate the access to scarce resources and how to cope within a legislative approach with the resulting patient selection.