Regulating entrepreneurial behaviour in European health care systems (2002)

Edited by Richard B. Saltman, Reinhard Busse & Elias Mossialos
Published by Open University Press
European Observatory on Health Care Systems series
2002, xv + 240 pages 
ISBN 0 335 20922 X (Paperback) £22.50
ISBN 0 335 20923 8 (Hardback) £65.00

A wide range of entrepreneurial initiatives has been introduced within European health care systems during the last decade. While these initiatives promised more efficient management, they also triggered concerns about reduced equity and quality in service provision. This book explores emerging regulatory strategies that seek to capture the benefits of entrepreneurial innovation without sacrificing the core policy objectives of a socially responsible health care system. It opens with an extended essay on current trends and evidence across health care subsectors and across countries, presenting a wide range of alternatives for policy-makers, and assessing their relative advantages and disadvantages. It then reviews entrepreneurialism and regulation in specific contexts (such as hospitals, primary health care, social services) and considers related issues including the impact of corruption and the potential lessons from deregulation of public utilities.

This book brings together the perspectives of politics, economics, management, medicine, public health and law, and will be a valuable resource for students, academics, practitioners and policy-makers concerned with health policy and health reform.