Advocacy Coalition and Strategic Interaction in Korean Health Policy-making: Debates on the Privatization of Medical Services under the Park Geun-hye Government

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the political dynamics of The debates on medical services privatization under the Park Geun-hye government through the integrative analytical framework combining diverse components such as environmental contexts, belief systems, policy interests, strategic interaction and policy outputs. The Park Geun-hye government propelled medical services privatization centering the establishment of subsidiary companies of medical corporations and the introduction of the tele-medicine system. Business interest groups and hospital associations supported this idea. Proponents of medical services privatization put forward the economic value of privatization as its belief systems. Meanwhile, opponents of medical services privatization consisted of medical associations, opposition parties, and progressive- mined civic groups and trade unions. Some opponent members formulated an advocacy coalition, whereas medical professionals solely undertook collective actions to block medical services privatization. Opposition parties effectively made use of the filibuster institution to frustrate the legislation of the relevant laws for medical services privatization. Environmental context impacted the debates as a policy window. The policy intention of Park Geun-hye government to introduce medical services privatization was frustrated going through a series of political dynamics of policy debates. A concluding part discussed the characteristics of the debates and suggested policy implications.