Health reforms in Greece, Italy and Spain: studies on the Mediterranean paradigm

Abstract

This dossier focuses on some characteristics of the health reform processes in three southern European countries —Greece, Italy and Spain— over the second half of the twentieth century. We are interested in the proposals, projects and debates that sought to reorganise the health systems of these three countries. The paper on Italy analyses some aspects of the discussion that led to a national health service in 1978. In the cases of Greece and Spain, which both underwent a period of military dictatorship in the second half of the twentieth century, we describe attempts to restructure the system prior to the health reform laws (Greece, 1983, Spain, 1986).