Ideas, Transfer, and Diffusion in Health Care Policy

Much has been written in recent decades about the role of ideas in politics and public policy, a trend that is also present in the more specific field of health care research. This is the case because the assumptions of policy actors and the ways in which they frame the issues at hand have a direct impact on patterns of policy stability and change in health care. This paper connects the scholarship on the impact of domestic ideas with the literature on transnational processes in health care. The result is a critical review of the key concepts and claims associated with the study of ideas it relates to both domestic and transnational processes. Although literatures reviewed in this paper are not necessarily centred on the role of ideas, the analysis suggests they contribute to the study of ideational processes at the transnational level. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research about the role of ideas in both domestic and transnational health policy processes.