Patients' evaluation of access and quality of healthcare in EU countries. A comparative analysis

This article aims at providing an assessment of access and quality of healthcare in EU countries from a bottom up perspective and to investigate the relationship between several macroeconomic indicators related to public expenditure on health and institutional context and people' evaluations at microeconomic level. The results show significant differences in perception of access and healthcare quality among EU citizens. Citizens of developed countries have a positive opinion about quality of healthcare in their country while patients' from developing countries evaluate it rather negatively. Also, the findings confirm the existence of a relationship between several macroeconomic and institutional factors and respondents' evaluations of healthcare quality. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Arasli