Public Versus Private Financing

The debate about public versus private health care has two components: the choice of public or private financing and the choice of public versus private provision. In this paper we address the financing question. Torbica and Ciani (2016) address the issue of public versus private provision. In his discussion on this myth, Henry Mintzberg (2012) rightly states that, for many individuals, the choice between a public or private sector healthcare system is driven by a desire to have equity in access to health care. The equity arguments are discussed later in the chapter dealing with Myth #6 below, but it should be acknowledged that the desire for equity of access is not universal and depends on the culture and values in the country concerned (Torbica et al. 2016). Therefore, it is important to address the efficiency arguments, since if publicly financed healthcare systems were more equitable but less efficient, we would still have to consider the trade-offs between these two laudable, but different, objectives.