Health care systems in Europe are facing numerous challenges ranging from the global economic turbulence to demographic change to migration flows. Policymakers have been worried about ensuring universal coverage and improving quality while at the same time controlling the costs and increasing the efficiency of their health care systems in an environment of economic crisis.  Despite these similar pressures, particular reform programs and the resulting transformations in individual countries are quite different. This panel focuses on the transformations of health care systems in two Transition countries (Czech Republic and Poland) and two Southern European countries (Italy and Turkey). Papers on these four countries examine the content of the recent reforms and particular dynamics of policy change. Second, they discuss the outcomes of reforms in terms of the organization of health care systems and the balance of power among markets, states and patients. The first comparative paper on Italy and Poland demonstrates that the position of the central government vis-à-vis other stakeholders have been strengthened in the aftermath of the reforms. In Czech Republic, as the second paper argues, the results have been quite different as private providers emerged as the main beneficiary of the reforms. The third paper on the recent Turkish health reform initiative draws attention to the outcomes of the reforms in terms of redefining the origin of inequalities. While the reforms improved access to healthcare services, new inequalities based on income were created. Overall, the panel demonstrates that the so-called epidemic of reforms has diverse consequences in terms of the redefinition of the boundaries among the state and the market and creation of new inequalities.