Multinational Corporations and Health Care in the United States and Latin America: Strategies, Actions and Effects

Abstract

The process of globalization raises several problems regarding health care and public health. Influenced by public policy-makers in the United States, such organizations as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organization (WTO) have advocated policies that encourage reduction and privatization of health care and public health services previously provided in the public sector (Stocker et al. 1999; Iriart et al. 2001; Rao 1999; Turshen 1999; WHO 2000). International financial institutions and multinational corporations have influenced reforms that, while favourable to corporate interests, have worsened access to needed services and have strained the remaining public sector institutions.

This work was supported in part by grants from the National Library of Medicine (1G08 LM06688), the New Century Scholars Program of the US Fulbright Commission, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Roothbert Fund, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (1R03 HS13251), the National Institute of Mental Health (1R03 MH067012 and 1 R25 MH60288), and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the funding agencies. We are grateful to Ron Voorhees, Carolyn Mountain, Francisco Mercado, Ellen Shaffer, Cristina Laurell, Celia Iriart and Lori Wallach for their contributions to this project.