Open AccessHealth care reform in Croatia: for better or for worse?
Author(s) -
Meei-shia Chen,
Mastilica Mastilica
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.88.8.1156
Subject(s) - marketization , inequality , health care , quality (philosophy) , health care reform , business , croatian , rest (music) , economic growth , public economics , environmental health , health policy , political science , medicine , economics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , law , china , linguistics , cardiology
Along with the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, Croatia has begun to dismantle its long-standing socialist health care system and to replace it with a market-based approach. Marketization's advocates maintain that the market will bring efficiency and quality to the Croatian health care system. Nevertheless, data from consumer surveys and official statistics reflect the reform's hidden costs: limited access to care, heightened costs, growing inequality, and the deemphasis of preventive and proactive care in favor of costly therapeutic medicine.