Karen willis

Abstract

Private healthcare and the provision of private sector medicine is now a significant characteristic of many healthcare systems worldwide. The growth of private sector medicine has occurred in different ways across the globe. Many advanced economies developed public, universal healthcare systems following WW2, but since the 1980s have increasingly privatised these under conservative and neoliberal governments. In contrast, many developing nations have only recently begun to build their healthcare systems, and, under very different historical circumstances, have supported the growth of private medical services.