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Informal payments for health care: A threat to human security?

Larsson, Rickard LU (2010) SIMT07 20101
Master of Science in Global Studies
Graduate School
Abstract (Swedish)
The field of international security has changed significantly during the last decades. New security issues has risen on the agenda, and the concept of human security has diverted the attention of security studies from an exclusively state-centric focus towards a broader comprehension of who should be protected, and from what. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate an aspect of such a novel security issue, namely informal payments for health care as a form of corruption, and to evaluate its consequences from a human security perspective. Furthermore, the particular conditions in Lithuania regarding this subject will be examined, and the findings will be related to the conceptual debate on human security. The main findings of the study... (More)
The field of international security has changed significantly during the last decades. New security issues has risen on the agenda, and the concept of human security has diverted the attention of security studies from an exclusively state-centric focus towards a broader comprehension of who should be protected, and from what. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate an aspect of such a novel security issue, namely informal payments for health care as a form of corruption, and to evaluate its consequences from a human security perspective. Furthermore, the particular conditions in Lithuania regarding this subject will be examined, and the findings will be related to the conceptual debate on human security. The main findings of the study is that informal payments can constitute a threat to human security in a variety of ways; primarily by acting as a deterrent towards seeking care and lowering utilization of health services for poor people, and by imposing significant asset losses on patients. It was also found that informal payments is most severe in various specialized parts of the health care sector. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Larsson, Rickard LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMT07 20101
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
corruption, health care, informal payments, human security
language
English
id
1612726
date added to LUP
2010-06-30 09:36:27
date last changed
2010-06-30 09:36:27
@misc{1612726,
  abstract     = {{The field of international security has changed significantly during the last decades. New security issues has risen on the agenda, and the concept of human security has diverted the attention of security studies from an exclusively state-centric focus towards a broader comprehension of who should be protected, and from what. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate an aspect of such a novel security issue, namely informal payments for health care as a form of corruption, and to evaluate its consequences from a human security perspective. Furthermore, the particular conditions in Lithuania regarding this subject will be examined, and the findings will be related to the conceptual debate on human security. The main findings of the study is that informal payments can constitute a threat to human security in a variety of ways; primarily by acting as a deterrent towards seeking care and lowering utilization of health services for poor people, and by imposing significant asset losses on patients. It was also found that informal payments is most severe in various specialized parts of the health care sector.}},
  author       = {{Larsson, Rickard}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Informal payments for health care: A threat to human security?}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}