La mercantilización de la sanidad

Abstract

The worldwide attack against the Social Protection Public Services has its roots in the neoliberal policies applied from the beginning of the 80's by the governments of USA and the EU, with the backing of the guardians of the neoliberal orthodoxy, namely the OMC, the FMI and the WB. The privatization of the Health Care Systems implied important challenges. The hospitals could not be sold as it was done with another public enterprises. Furthermore, in the western countries, the population was accustomed to a free health care system, or at least to a wide reimbursing of the health expenditures. So, it was expected a big opposition to any loss in health rights. The goal of the Public Sector Reform, carried on by the States themselves, was to establish a more adequate framework in order to the transfer of the social insurances public funding to the private pocket. The organization and the workings of these public services was to be transformed into ones more easily profitable by the private sector. That is, the merchantilization of the Health Care. Although some structures from the former Health Care Systems still persist today, in the majority of the western countries, big multinationals, taking on the management and provision of the health care, are exerting a big pressure on the decisions concerning heath policies taken by the states. All this are decreasing the health of the population. The spanish case is a good example to show the strategies used to reach that goal