Many people depend on publicly funded healthcare to lead a productive, fulfilling, and satisfying life. While there is little guidance on where, or how, to introduce choice and competition in healthcare services, there has nevertheless been a steady movement towards the greater use of market mechanisms to improve the quality and efficiency of these services.
This is important because the quality and efficiency of these services contributes to both productivity and inclusivity. On the first count, more efficient healthcare services not only directly boost public sector, and therefore total, productivity, but also boost the productivity of workers across the economy (e.g. fewer long-term health problems). On the second, giving choice between publicly funded healthcare services rather than people having to rely on “voice” to demand better services can enable poorer citizens to obtain more equal treatment, helping inclusiveness.
However, in the wake of the financial crisis, tight government budgets, and a fear of so-called neo-liberalism appear to have created push-back that has slowed and in some cases reversed this progress. In November 2018, the OECD Global Forum on Competition held a roundtable discussion to share the experience and lessons learned on what has worked well, and what has worked badly. All related materials for the discussion are available on this page.
