Health care and business don’t mix

Using private companies to provide health care on a for-profit basis is not a viable model, warn researchers. The market wins – and patients lose. According to sociologist Charlene Harrington, private, commercial nursing homes have fewer staff members per patient and inferior quality of care. Privatizing health care is often promoted as a way of ensuring cheaper and better care through competition, rather than relying on a less efficient public sector without the need to compete. But a market economy in the health sector doesn’t work, according to research presented at a conference hosted in Oslo by the REASSESS – Reassessing the Nordic Welfare Model – research center.

Read