HEINZ ROTHGANG is Professor of Health Economics at the University of Bremen and Director of the Division for Health Economics, Health Policy and Outcomes Research, Centre for So-cial Policy Research, Bremen, Germany. His research interests are in the field of health economics, healthcare systems, long-term care insurance and welfare economics. He is currently heading the research project 'The changing role of the state in OECD healthcare systems' at the TranState Research Centre. MIRELLA CACACE is an economist. Her main areas of research concern institutional economics and the international comparison of healthcare systems. She was a member of the Collaborative Research Center 597 in Bremen, Germany between 2003 and 2010. She currently works as an analyst at RAND Europe, Health and Health Care. LORRAINE FRISNA is a political scientist working as a research associate and lecturer at the Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' at the University of Bremen, Germany since 2006. Her main areas of research include comparative healthcare policy, with a particular focus on national health services, developments in policy values, the effects of DRGS on the professional autonomy of physicians and the role that economic crises have on welfare states. SIMONE GRIMMEISEN is a Program Officer at the Department for Health Care and Humanitarian Aid at the Robert Bosch Foundation, Germany. Previous appointments include the German Ministry of Health and the University of Bremen, Germany where she was a member of the Collaborative Research Center 597 between 2003 and 2005. Her research interest is international and European welfare state research with a special focus on the German and British healthcare systems. ACHIM SCHMID is a research fellow and Ph.D. student at the Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' at the University of Bremen, Germany. He joined the project on the state and healthcare at the end of 2005. His main research interests include comparative social policy and health policy. CLAUS WENDT is Professor of Sociology for health and healthcare systems at Siegen University, Germany. He was a member of the Collaborative Research Center 597 in Bremen, Germany between 2003 and 2005. His research interests include institutional theory, political sociology, international comparisons of welfare states and healthcare systems and the sociology of health.