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The health care reform in Portugal: Outcomes from both the New Public Management and the economic crisis

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  • Alexandre Morais Nunes
  • Diogo Cunha Ferreira

Abstract

The Portuguese health system concentrates most of its activity in a National Health Service, created in 1979 to promote universal and general access. The National Health Service should ensure equity, efficiency, and quality of all health care delivered services. This study assesses the impact of health care policies between 2002 and 2017, focusing on 3 timeframes: the adoption and adaptation of New Public Management principles to the health care sector (2002 to 2010), the economic and financial crisis period (2011‐2015), and the postcrisis recovery period (2016‐2017). The current study evaluates the main policy measures in the health sector, presenting their impacts in terms of access, efficiency, accountability, and costs over those 3 economic periods. It was verified that not all the measures implemented by the successive governments obtained the desired outcomes, generating even costs increase, apart from the austerity period in which health expenditure showed a significant reduction because of the financial constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandre Morais Nunes & Diogo Cunha Ferreira, 2019. "The health care reform in Portugal: Outcomes from both the New Public Management and the economic crisis," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 196-215, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:34:y:2019:i:1:p:196-215
    DOI: 10.1002/hpm.2613
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Amado, Carla Alexandra da Encarnação Filipe & Santos, Sérgio Pereira dos, 2009. "Challenges for performance assessment and improvement in primary health care: The case of the Portuguese health centres," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 43-56, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexandre Morais Nunes & Diogo Cunha Ferreira, 2022. "A Critical Analysis of Decentralizing the Portuguese Public Healthcare Provision Services," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-10, October.
    2. Ricardo, Alexandre Vilar & Costa, Ana Sara & Figueira, José Rui, 2024. "Enhancing hospital benchmarking: A multidimensional approach to quality assessment in Portugal," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Cláudia Costa & Paula Santana, 2021. "Gender and Age Differences in Socio‐economic Inequalities in Total and Avoidable Mortality in Portugal: A Trend Analysis," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 123-145, March.
    4. Morgan Weiland & Paula Santana & Claudia Costa & Julia Doetsch & Eva Pilot, 2021. "Spatial Access Matters: An Analysis of Policy Change and Its Effects on Avoidable Infant Mortality in Portugal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-18, January.
    5. Irene Gabutti & Christian Colizzi & Tommaso Sanna, 2023. "Assessing Organizational Readiness to Change through a Framework Applied to Hospitals," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-22, March.
    6. Arantes, Amílcar & Alhais, Andreia Frias & Ferreira, Luis Miguel D.F., 2022. "Application of a purchasing portfolio model to define medicine purchasing strategies: An empirical study," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

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