Working title: The Politics of Patient and Citizen Involvement in Different Health Care Systems: The Cases of Germany, Finland and Poland

The last decade has seen a new focus on users of health care services. Starting with a new movement for individual patients’ rights, collective participation of patients and citizens in decision-making processes in health care matters has gained ground in health politics.
However, what actually motivates the politics of patient and citizen involvement in different health care systems? There appear to be different reasons and objectives for closer involvement, comprising both normative and functional ones. The quest for democratisation of service organisation as opposing or adding to efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery would find its expression in different ways and concepts of patient and citizen participation. These have to be considered in the context of institutional settings and basic ideas of health care provision; and only a closer look at roles and positions of health care users, at forms and objectives of user participation will provide a comprehensive picture of the politics of patient and citizen involvement in health care systems.
The study adopts qualitative research methods to investigate participation politics in Germany, Finland and Poland. After presenting theoretical concepts of patient and citizen involvement and its objectives, the paper will provide an overview on patient and citizen participation in determining the basic health care package, modes and quality of health treatment, and parameters of finance. It will then sum up the political discourse on user involvement, before relating the empirical results to the basic concepts.

Relevance to the graduate school’s framework topic
The topic fits in the module on the future shaping of the European Social Model, as the new emphasis put on patient and citizen participation in social and health policies refers to a redirection of the European Social Model towards a greater concern for individual interests and those directly concerned.