Health Politics

OECD countries adopt different ways of financing and providing healthcare. Each model of governance of the health system embodies a particular vision of the role of the state and the private sector, of the border between individual and collective responsibility, of the right degree of freedom to be recognized by the citizen, and of the idea of social equity. The strategic choices made in the healthcare field, and the reasons why one model of healthcare organization is adopted rather than another, can be interpreted by referring to health politics. Adopting this perspective means starting from the assumption that healthcare policies emerge from an arena in which multiple actors, the bearers of different visions and interests, confront one another in an attempt to make their demands prevail. The policy mixes that are adopted, therefore, reflect the relationships of force between the players in the field, the alliances between the interest groups, the mood of public opinion, and the advantage of the individual political forces. In other words, focusing on health politics means rebuilding the \u201cpolitical game\u201d that determines healthcare decisions (as well as nondecisions). The topic of healthcare politics is investigated in this chapter with respect to three fundamental components: ideas, interests, and institutions