8).įollowing the 2008 global financial crisis, several countries implemented structural adjustment programmes that affected most economic sectors, including healthcare. Concurring with previous research, in this article we use access to healthcare to refer to the “ opportunity to identify healthcare needs, to seek healthcare services, to reach, to obtain or use health care services and to actually have the need for services fulfilled” (p. Access to healthcare is a multifaceted concept, which can refer to, among others, service availability, utilisation of services, relevance of services, and equity. While access to healthcare is a basic human right, according to the World Health Organisation’s Constitution, people with disabilities face several barriers in their effort to access healthcare services and report higher unmet healthcare needs, compared to people with no disabilities. Neoliberal reforms can be seen as a form of structural violence, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable parts of the population – such as people with disabilities – and curtailing access to basic rights, such as healthcare.
The effects of this range from catastrophic out-of-pocket payments to compromised access to healthcare. The power differentials produced through neoliberal policies that focus on economic rather than human rights indicators, can lead to a category of disempowered people, whose health needs are subordinated to the markets. Through a review of the policies performed in these two countries, we propose that the pathways that affect access to healthcare for disabled people include: a) Policies directly or indirectly targeting healthcare, affecting the entire population, including disabled people and b) Policies affecting socioeconomic determinants, directly or indirectly targeting disabled people, and indirectly impacting access to healthcare. Greece is one of the most recent examples of countries that have carried out extensive changes in healthcare, which have resulted in a deterioration of the quality of healthcare services. Chile was among the first countries to introduce neoliberal reforms in the health sector, which led to health inequalities and stratification of healthcare services. This article is based on a critical analytical review of the literature and on two case studies, Chile and Greece.
In this article, we analyse the impacts of neoliberal reforms on access to healthcare for disabled people. People with disabilities can be particularly disadvantaged by such reforms, due to their increased healthcare needs and lower socioeconomic status.
#Neo liberalism free#
Neoliberal reforms lead to deep changes in healthcare systems around the world, on account of their emphasis on free market rather than the right to health.
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