Social Responsibility and Healthcare in Finland

The Luck Egalitarian Challenge to Scandinavian Welfare Ideals

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23236179
AutoresJohanna Ahola-Launonen (0000-0002-6693-5795, University of Helsinki, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume25
Fascículo3
Páginas448-465
Data de publicação2016-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0963-1801 • E-ISSN: 1469-2147
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0963180116000098
PMID27348829
OpenAlexW2465940929
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas4

This article examines current trends and prospects in Finnish healthcare literature and discussion. The Finnish healthcare system was long considered to manifest an equal, universal, and solidaristic welfare scheme. However, recent data reveals structural inequalities in access to healthcare that result in health differences among socioeconomic groups. The political will aims at tackling these inequalities, but the ideological trend toward responsibilization of the individual taking place across political spheres elsewhere in Europe creates potential challenges to this goal. The applications of this trend have a theoretical background in the responsibility-sensitive egalitarian—or luck egalitarian—tradition. The theory, which is unfit for real-life policy applications, has explicit appeal in considerations aiming at the responsibilization of the individual within the healthcare sector. It remains to be seen in which direction the Finnish welfare schemes will continue to develop.

Appeal · Economics · Epistemology · Health care · Ideology · Inequality · Luck · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Positive economics · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Welfare · Employment and Welfare Studies · Healthcare Systems and Challenges · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies