Resisting privatization and marketization of health care: People’s Health Movement’s experiences from India, Philippines and Europe

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the last three decades, healthcare systems have been under pressure to adapt to a neoliberal world and incorporate market principles. The introduction of market-based instruments, increasing competition among health care providers, introducing publicly -funded private sector provisioning of healthcare through health insurance financing systems to replace public provisioning of health care, promoting individual responsibility for health and finally, the introduction of market relations through privatization, deregulation and decentralization of health care have been some common elements seen globally. These reforms, undertaken under the guise of increasing efficiency and quality through competition and choice, have in fact harmed the physical, emotional and mental health of communities around the world and also contributed to a significant rise in inequities in health and healthcare access. They have weakened the public healthcare systems of countries and led to commercialization of healthcare. This article presents three case studies of resistance, to the commercialization of health care, by the People’s Health Movement (PHM) and associated networks. It aims to contribute to the understanding of the way neoliberal reforms, including those imposed under structural adjustment programmes and some promoted under the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) paradigm, have impacted country-level health systems and access of people to health care, and bring out lessons from the resistance against these reforms.