Article at a glance:

Healing Eastern Europe's hospitals

Health care spending has been a major casualty of Eastern Europe's transition to the market economy. To meet a dire need for cash, public hospitals there have two options: to charge patients for some services and to bid for a growing share of the global market for clinical trials sponsored by multinational pharmaceutical companies.

The take-away

While both options are controversial, they offer ways to stem the flow of cash to private clinics and to stabilize public-health systems in crisis, thus improving health care for the whole population.