Navigating Private and Public Healthcare

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Karen Willis

   Pages 1-11

3. About the System: Universalism and Privatisation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

      PDF

   2. Chapter Two: Universalism in Healthcare and Social Citizenship in Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica

      • Monica Budowski

      Pages 15-39

   3. Chapter Three: Privatisation and Marketisation Within a Healthcare System: The Swedish Experience

      • Paula Blomqvist

      Pages 41-60

4. Institutions of Health

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

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   2. Chapter Four: ‘Looking Outside Their Walls’: Exploring Community Health in Chicago Hospitals

      • Fernando De Maio, Raj C. Shah, Kerianne Burke

      Pages 63-86

   3. Chapter Five: Contracting-Out Care: Nursing Homes in Canada

      • Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong

      Pages 87-103

5. Gatekeepers in the System

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105

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   2. Chapter Six: Gatekeepers in a Mixed Private/Public System

      • Fran Collyer

      Pages 107-130

   3. Chapter Seven: Creeping Privatisation? Examining Procurement Choices in the ‘New’ NHS in England

      • Vid Calovski, Michael Calnan

      Pages 131-154

6. Healthcare Professionals

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

      PDF

   2. Chapter Eight: Safeguarding Through Work Arounds: Socio-Materiality and the Organising of Care in a Private Hospital

      • Trudy Rudge, Luisa Toffoli

      Pages 157-180

   3. Chapter Nine: Reducing Healthcare Costs in Portugal: Outcomes and Implications for Public and Private Medicine

      • Tiago Correia

      Pages 181-199

   4. Chapter Ten: Promoting Health as a Form of Capital: The Transformation of the Danish Healthcare Field as Experienced By Private Healthcare Professionals

      • Kristian Larsen, Ivan Harsløf

      Pages 201-223

7. Patients, Consumers and Citizens

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 225-225

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   2. Chapter Eleven: The Imperative of Choice in Australian Healthcare

      • Karen Willis, Sophie Lewis

      Pages 227-248

   3. Chapter Twelve: The Marketisation of Aged Care: The Impact of Aged Care Reform in Australia

      • Julie Henderson, Eileen Willis

      Pages 249-267

8. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 269-269

      PDF

   2. Chapter Thirteen: Navigating Private and Public Healthcare

      • Fran Collyer

      Pages 271-294

This edited collection focuses on the global growth of privatisation and private sector medicine in both developed and lesser developed countries, and the impact of this on patients, health workers, managers and policy-makers. Drawing upon sociological theories, concepts and insights, as well as experts from several countries with extensive experience in researching the field either nationally or internationally, the collection offers a unique perspective on healthcare services and healthcare systems: a view from those trying to access healthcare services, working inside health systems, or responsible for managing and organising services. Collectively, the chapters contribute an international perspective on the navigation of healthcare systems, and addresses the growing salience of ‘choice’ between public and private medicine in a variety of different national systems and contexts.

• Healthcare
• private sector medicine
• healthcare workers
• privatisation
• inequality in health care
• Australian healthcare
• NHS
• Local and National Governmental Hospitals in Japan
• National Survey of Physicians in Portugal
• Swedish healthcare system
• health consumers
• universal health care systems
• community health needs assessment (CHNA)
• 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
• Nordic Health Care system
• Aged Care Reform in Australia
• NDIS

“This book offers a brilliant analysis of the changing relationships between public and private expenditure in healthcare. The case studies take us on a journey across the globe and illuminate different stakeholder perspectives, healthcare systems and areas of provision. The book will become a valuable source for everyone in healthcare research, teaching and policy-making.” (Ellen Kuhlmann, Medical School Hannover, Germany)

“Understanding the complex interaction between public, non-profit and for-profit provision of health care is challenging even for professionals in the field. This volume gives a rich set of case studies, grounded in rigorous sociological analysis. It provides a valuable corrective to the simplistic idea that increased for-profit provision will promote competition and enhance consumer choice.” (John Quiggin, University of Queensland, Australia)

“While private medicine is now a significant characteristic of healthcare around the world, under the influence of neoliberalism and marketization, it has received relatively little sociological attention. This book seeks to do just this. Drawing on case studies from a diverse range of countries it offers insights into how the shift towards “the private” has impacted on all levels of healthcare, and in so doing contributed to inequality is such healthcare. As such it is essential reading for students, researchers, policy makers and the general public who care about this vital issue.” (Jonathan Gabe, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)

• Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

  Fran Collyer

• School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

  Karen Willis

Fran Collyer is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney. Her current projects focus on the history and impact of Australian sociology, the growth of private medicine and the inequalities of global networks of expert knowledge. Recent books include Knowledge and Global Power (2019); and the Palgrave Handbook of Social Theory in Health, Illness and Medicine (2015).


Karen Willis is Professor in the School of Allied Health at La Trobe University and at Melbourne Health. Willis is joint editor-in-chief of Health Sociology Review, and her research focuses on how choices are made between private and public healthcare, and interaction with healthcare professionals. Willis has published Society, Culture and Health (in two editions) and is an active user of Twitter (@KarenWillis19) to promote debate in health sociology.

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