THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE STRUCTURES OF HEALTH CARE - OPPORTUNITY OF GROWTH

Barbel Held ()
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Barbel Held: Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin, Germany

Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, 2013, vol. 8, issue 3, 27-47

Abstract: The healthcare industry is a growth driver. However, the health system is facing a crisis, affected by the financial development in Europe. An almost completely regulated market is just as little use, as a largely deregulated market such as in the U.S.A. Both lead to gaps in the sustainable and comprehensive patient care. Based on the German Healthcare System, an analysis is performed. Currently, the German health care system is in a transformation process. Traditional forms of health care services provision and the existing governance system are coming to their limits. The current health care system no longer meets the requirements for ensuring accessible and affordable health care services. As new players on the German hospital market, commercial hospital groups have emerged. To get more informed on the effects at the regional level, a scenario analysis was performed. A trend scenario which shows a clear trend toward a substantial increase of regional imbalances was developed. On one hand, there are highly profitable regions with excellent medical service provision by commercial hospital groups, and on the other hand, there are peripheral regions with a second-rate medicine, which are left to the public sector. The paper derives first ideas about a new structure of the healthcare system for ensuring accessible and affordable health care services for the citizens. The paper shows first ideas about the transformation of healthcare as an opportunity for growth.

Keywords: healthcare regions; networks; scenario analysis; public governance; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 O12 O14 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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