Health care financing and economic development : a comparative study of the Czech Republic and Turkey

Abstract

Health care systems in many countries around the world have been subject to major reform initiatives since 1980s and 1990s. The main rationale for reform was an increasing need to control costs in health care as the countries struggled to adapt to the global economic conjuncture and deal with their financial problems. The movement to reform health care arose in that context and spread amongst health care experts and policy makers. The aim of this study is to understand how reforms were initiated and what forces drove them. This topic is addressed through the case studies of change in health care policies in Turkey and the Czech Republic, both of which having experienced the influence of global economic trends, yet are defined by fundamentally different economic, political and social conditions. The findings of the study support that health policy ideas were diffused to the two countries via international policy networks; domestic contexts facilitated the diffusion. Interest groups were important actors in both countries, but the role played by various groups differed in the two countries. Finally, the countries appear to have tendency to converge to a certain degree with regard to their health financing system. Key words: Health care reform, policy diffusion, globalization, Czech Republic, Turkey.