In this CHORUS Webinar, titled ‘Strategic Purchasing of Health Care from the Private Sector’, Dr Mark Hellowell, Associate Professor in Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh,  discusses the purchasing of health services from private providers on behalf of covered populations. Using the findings from the WHO ‘Purchasing healthcare from the private sector: a primer for middle-income countries in the WHO European Region’ we explore the benefits, costs and risks of purchasing healthcare from private providers, and if, when and how to do so, across very diverse contexts and the policy considerations.