The commodification of the health sector has been an ongoing process for several decades; both at the level of international institutions (WHO but also IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization) and of European or national institutions, public policies - whose mantras are liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation - have largely favoured the development of a for-profit health sector. Whereas the pharmaceutical sector and its multinationals pocketing gigantic profits is fairly well documented, this is not the case for the private hospital sector or the sector of private institutions for the elderly. This is why we decided to collect the data available on private for-profit companies active in these two sectors in Europe and to create an interactive map.
In this investigation
– Mapping the privatisation of healthcare in Europe
– Impact of Healthcare Privatization on Eldercare Homes in Spain
– Company Profiles
– Caring for profit : resources
On Lobbying :
– Even after the Covid pandemic, ever more public money for the private care sector?
– Lobbying for private healthcare: the Spanish case
– The political connections behind the rise of privatised care ’champions’ in France
– In Germany, founders of private hospital companies are bankrolling the pro-business party FDP
– In the midst of a pandemic, WHO is full of praises for the private for-profit healthcare sector
Case studies :
– ORPEA or the low-cost management of ageing
– Fresenius and the Jiménez Díaz Foundation in Madrid : a citizen audit of the debt generated by the privatisation of hospitals
– Penta in Slovakia : from real estate to private clinics
– Quirónsalud Profits From Increasing Healthcare Privatization in Spain
– Korian, Major Operator of European Nursing Homes, Has History of Complaints and Worker Strikes
– Bupa aged care homes in Australia & the UK regularly rated ‘inadequate’
– Asklepios Kliniken under fire for staffing shortages and hospital closures
– The privatisation of the care home sector in Belgium
– The effects of commodifying care in Belgian care homes
– Webinar