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Objectives: Interest in the composition of the health care menu has grown. Its outwardly comprehensive nature is as rhetorical as the slogans of universal access and affordability. This paper summarizes the international part of a report to the Swiss government, in which we explored the basic package of services covered by social health insurance in France, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland. The aim of the initial report was to check the appropriateness of the Swiss catalogue, with special attention to the risk of unequal access to health care by rationing of effective services. In this paper, we highlight the major differences in service coverage between the countries and address the possible factors explaining those differences. Methods: The contents of the basic packages of the six countries were compared using data from government ministries and sickness funds. Results: Coverage is most comprehensive in Germany and Switzerland; these are also the countries with the greatest total health expenditure. Three countries separated nursing care from other types of health care by creating an independent insurance scheme. Some health care benefits are also covered under the heading of social care. High out-of-pocket payments are increasingly used as hidden rationing instruments. Conclusions: The present comparison highlights the multi-factorial character of the choices made in six countries in order to keep their health care menu within the possibilities offered by available resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]