Health care determinants in comparative perspective: The role of partisan politics for health care provision

Health care systems differ substantially across countries in terms of service provision, which is of direct relevance for the quality and distribution of health care citizenship rights. Whereas the driving forces for the expansion and subsequent decline of social benefits have received great scholarly interest in comparative research, the determinants for health care provision are largely unexplored. In this paper we assess the role of partisan politics for health care provision in 18 OECD countries 1980-2005. Contrary to the development of other social citizenship rights over this period, the analysis of health care provision is one of expansion rather than decline. Based on OECD Health data we propose a new strategy for measuring social citizenship rights in the area of health care policy that is based on institutional organization rather than expenditure levels. The regression framework shows that left wing governments are positively related to the expansion of health care provision. Likewise, confessional parties generally have a stronger positive impact than secular right wing governments.