Diversity as salvation? – A comparison of the diversity rationale in the Swedish pharmacy ownership liberalization reform and the primary care choice reform

Widespread liberalizing reform of the Swedish community pharmacy and primary care sectors took place in 2009–2010, including opening the market to private providers. One important rationale for the reforms was to increase diversity in the health-care system by providing more choices for individuals. The aim of this study was to increase the understanding how policy makers understood and defined diversity as a concept, and as a rationale for the reforms. The method used was document analysis of preparatory work and plenary parliament debate protocols. The results show that policy makers held vague and unclear definitions of diversity, which complicated its implementation. Diversity was sometimes seen as an effect of competition–a goal–while in other cases it was seen as a condition to be met in order to achieve competition–a means. Thus, policy makers viewed diversity both as a goal and as a means, making the underlying mechanisms unclear. The findings also revealed that policy makers failed to consistently demonstrate how the introduction of competition would lead to diversity.