The political economy of health and healthcare : the rise of the patient citizen / Joan Costa-Font, Gilberto Turati, Alberto Batinti.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The political design of health systems -- The multilevel nature of health care governance -- 'Collective action' and global health care -- Constitutional health system design -- Democracy and the health of the patient citizen -- Political markets in health care -- Ideology and healthcare -- Health care waste and corruption -- Interest groups and health policy -- Political sustainability of health innovation.

"With the proliferation of academic journals and the increased importance attributed to research papers for academic careers, the tradition of writing book manuscripts has become less popular in social sciences. However, there still is a point in writing a book to provide an 'unified overview' of specific field of research. This is especially the case when the research produced in a specific field has set the foundations of an independent field of study which can be labeled as the 'political economy of health and health care'. Increasingly, scholars of different disciplines such as economics, politics, sociology, health sciences among others, have produced a wealth of knowledge on how political institutions and processes influence the dynamics and performance of health systems. Most of these contributions, however, tend to be scattered, and often fail to speak to each other when they probably should for the discipline to continue advancing. The purpose of this book has been to build a bridge between disciplines and help contribute to a unified perspective"-- Provided by publisher.