Risks and opportunities of reforms putting primary care in the driver’s seat: Comment on “Governance, government, and the search for new provider models”

Abstract

Recognizing the advantages of primary care as a means of improving the entire health system, this text comments on reforms of publicly funded primary health centers, and the rapid development of private for-profit providers in Sweden. Many goals and expectations are connected to such reforms, which equally require critical analyses of scarce resources, professional trust/motivation and business logic in the wake of freedom and control of ownership and management. In line with Saltman and Duran, this article calls for research and a methodologically developed approach to capture everyday practice in-depth and how regulation, market incentives and patient demands are met by professionals and primary care leaders.