Tackling corruption in the health sector

Abstract

Corruption in the health sector is unique because it includes abuse by public officials and unscrupulous behavior by other actors (drug manufacturers, health professionals, patients, etc.). The urgency of solving the scientific problem lies in the fact that financial relations in the medical field arise between a wide range of persons who can act as initiators of corruption decisions and/or their executors. The study’s main goal is to analyze the forms of corruption in the healthcare system and their consequences for society, as well as to assess the degree of interrelationship between the level of corruption and indicators of financial support in the healthcare sector. The methods of structural and comparative bibliometric analysis and correlation analysis became the methodical tools of the conducted research. The object of research is 140 countries in the world. The conducted bibliometric analysis testified to the permanent growth of the study of the issue of corruption in medicine in the scientific environment. Scientists from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany have implemented the largest number of works on a certain topic. The conducted correlation analysis also empirically confirmed that an increase in the level of corruption in the country leads to an increase in the share of household expenses for financing their own medical needs. The article founds that the population in countries with a low level of corruption (the corruption promotion index is closer to 100) has a higher level of provision of vital medical services (reproductive health, health of women, newborns, and children, infectious diseases, non-infectious diseases and opportunities provision of services and access to them). Countries with a high level of anti-corruption and coverage of medical services include Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain. The results of the research can be useful for state regulatory bodies, specialized organizations in the field of health care, as well as public organizations.