Democratizing Health

This book examines the important role of consumer activism in health policy in different national contexts.

In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratisation in the health domain. The expert contributors explore how their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively analysing the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative framework, with case studies from various countries.

Students and researchers in the fields of health policy and sociology, public policy and social movements will find this relevant and path-breaking book enlightening. It will also prove invaluable for participants and activists in patient and health consumer organisations.

Contents:

1. Introduction – Consumer Groups and the Democratization of Health Policy
Michael Leahy, Hans Löfgren and Evelyne de Leeuw

2. Health Activism in the Age of Governance
Timothy Milewa

3. Health Consumer Groups in the United Kingdom: Progress or Stagnation?
Kathryn Jones and Rob Baggott

4. Citizens, Consumers and Stakeholders in European Health Policy
Meri Koivusalo and Jonathan Tritter

5. The People’s Health Movement: Health for All, Now!
Prem Chandran John and David G. Legge

6. Aboriginal Community Control and Decolonizing Health Policy: A Yarn from Australia
Bronwyn Fredericks, Karen Adams and Rebecca Edwards

7. The Irish Health Service’s Expert Advisory Groups: Spaces for Advancing Epistemological Justice?
Orla O’Donovan

8. Patient Empowerment in the Netherlands
Atie Schipaanboord, Diana Delnoij and Roland Bal

9. Health Policy in Germany: Consumer Groups in a Corporatist Polity
Jens Geissler

10. Austrian Health Consumer Groups: Voices Gaining Strength?
Rudolf Forster, Gudrun Braunegger-Kallinger and Karl Krajic

11. Malaysia: The Consumer Voice in the Policy Process
Simon Barraclough and Phua Kai Lit

12. From Activism to State Inclusion: Health Consumer Groups in Australia
Hans Löfgren, Michael Leahy and Evelyne de Leeuw

13. Health Consumers in Canada: Swimming Against a Neo-liberal Tide
John Church and Wendy Armstrong

14. Empowering Health Care Consumers in the United States
Michael H. Fox and Anna Lambertson

15. Health Policy in the United States: Consumers and Citizens in a Market Polity
Christina Nuñez Daw, Denise Truong and Pauline Vaillancourt Rosenau

16. Health Consumer Groups and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Is Transparency the Answer?
Agnes Vitry and Hans Löfgren

Index