Although most countries retained a predominantly fee for services system for both primary care and specialist payments, Sweden and Spain retained their payment by salary for both. However, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have either shifted their predominant focus or developed mixed modes of payment for primary care services. (These modes of payment refer to the predominant method in the country; all countries with governmental health systems have at least a small private sector which may operate differently.)

As the findings were similar for both time periods, only the latter are presented for the remainder of the findings.