Between the German Model and Liberal Medicine: The Negotiating Process of the State Health Care System in France and Spain (1919–1944)

Abstract

t is a well known fact that the collectivisation of medical aid began in Germany with the creation by Chancellor Bismarck of the so-called Krankenkassen system in 1883. This model was to be adopted by several European countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the setting-up of social security and collectivised medical assistance receiving a considerable boost in the inter-war period and at the end of the Second World War. However, each of the industrialized nations, confronted by similar problems, adopted remarkably different solutions. In each case a solution was sought to suit the existing institutions, administrative traditions, popular customs or financial situation of the country. I