Melting public-private boundaries in European health systems

• DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/13.1.24
• Publication Date: 2004-11-11T16:00:11Z
• Authors: R. B. Saltman
• Keywords: Private practice; Baseline (sea)

Renewed debates about the superiority of either predominantly public or private health services arrangements have tended to be more ideologically charged than conceptually precise. Historically, public/private split in European systems has often been sharply defined principle practice. This real‐world variation was further complicated during 1990s by reforms that enabled publicly owned hospitals and centres manage their daily operations independently. Most recently, several new initiatives established complex cross‐boundary cannot easily characterized as private. article presents a rigorous four‐part classification past can provide theoretical baseline from which judge future developments.