Abstract
Healthcare policy has long been impacted by actors and governance processes outside of the control of national jurisdictions and governments. As part of neoliberal reform processes promoted by various multilateral organizations in the aftermath of the 1982 debt crisis, especially the international financial institutions (IFIs) (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF), social policy choices have been increasingly circumscribed by structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). In consequence, the World Bank and the IMF became important agenda-setters in global healthcare policy. While some of the emerging criticisms of SAPs undermined the authority and legitimacy of the IFIs throughout the 1990s and 2000s, with the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, their relevance has (again) increased significantly, especially when they were made the main vehicles to fight the global financial crisis by the Group of 20 countries (G20). Yet, the role of the IFIs in the setting of global healthcare policy, especially in low-income countries, often remains unacknowledged in debates about healthcare policy and governance.
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© 2015 Arne Ruckert, Ronald Labonté and Rylan H. Parker
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Ruckert, A., Labonté, R., Parker, R.H. (2015). Global Healthcare Policy and the Austerity Agenda. In: Kuhlmann, E., Blank, R.H., Bourgeault, I.L., Wendt, C. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Healthcare Policy and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384935_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384935_3
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