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Health care privatization processes in Europe: Theoretical justifications and empirical classification
Author(s) -
André Christine,
Batifoulier Philippe,
JansenFerreira Mariana
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international social security review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1468-246X
pISSN - 0020-871X
DOI - 10.1111/issr.12092
Subject(s) - health care , diversity (politics) , european union , process (computing) , business , eu countries , public economics , empirical research , economic system , political science , economic growth , economics , economic policy , law , computer science , operating system , philosophy , epistemology
This article analyses the health care system reform process in Europe based on the concept of privatization. This notion is understood from two perspectives. First, privatization may concern the health care financing or the provision of health services. Second, privatization can be “imposed” on individuals or be “internalized” and then introduced by individuals (patients and doctors). So we emphasize the diversity that privatization can assume. We classify privatization mechanisms used by different countries and identify which of the perspectives presented are more common in 14 European Union countries since the 1980s. The article shows that even if privatization processes are widespread, they assume different patterns in each country.