For-profit hospitals for Europe: the case of Britain and France.
The paper first describes the structural characteristics of the for-profit private sector in Britain and in France. In Britain, the recent growth of the for-profit private hospital's sector, although still a small sector, is related to the growth of private insurance. Cost-containment however coupled to rapid increases in premiums is slowing down the momentum. Moreover, the NHS starts charging private hospitals for such services like blood banks. In France the private sector has always been strong, although living in a highly regulated and dependent symbiosis with the public sector. In a second part, speculations are made on the crucial question whether for-profit hospitals are a legitimate alternative for Europe. In the end, an in-between solution is opted for by which the public sector would sub-contract certain functions like data processing, management and others, from the commercial sector.