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Increasing pressures and support for public healthcare in Europe

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  • Jensen, Carsten
  • Naumann, Elias

Abstract

We present the results from a natural survey-experiment that tests the effect of a sudden increase in health risks – a flu epidemic – on the public's support for government involvement in health care provision. The data covers 17 European countries and around 10,000 respondents. It was collected in 2008 as part of the European Social Survey. We find that the flu epidemic led to a significant decline in support. Interestingly, changes where located predominantly among those respondents that are self-described right-leaning in ideological terms. The effects of the flu epidemic lasted several weeks and in some instances persisted as long as it was possible to track with the data (i.e., a month). Given that this was a single-event stimulus such a comparably long-lasting effect is noteworthy for both public policy-makers and political scientists.

Suggested Citation

  • Jensen, Carsten & Naumann, Elias, 2016. "Increasing pressures and support for public healthcare in Europe," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(6), pages 698-705.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:120:y:2016:i:6:p:698-705
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2016.04.015
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    Cited by:

    1. Yuen, Vera W.H., 2023. "The efficacy of health experts’ communication in inducing support for COVID-19 measures and effect on trustworthiness: A survey in Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    2. Van Hootegem, Arno & Laenen, Tijs, 2022. "A wave of support? A natural experiment on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the popularity of a basic income," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Online Fi, pages 1-1.
    3. Anna Ruelens, 2022. "Analyzing user-generated content using natural language processing: a case study of public satisfaction with healthcare systems," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 731-749, May.
    4. Schneider, Simone M. & Popic, Tamara, 2018. "Cognitive determinants of healthcare evaluations – A comparison of Eastern and Western European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 269-278.
    5. Busemeyer, Marius R., 2021. "Health care attitudes and institutional trust during the COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from the case of Germany," Working Papers 01, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".

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