Who should be in charge? Citizens’ perceptions of the provision of health care services in South Korea

Abstract

This study investigates the perceptions of citizens in South Korea concerning the provision of health care services by the government and private for profit and non-profit entities. A cluster analysis based on the perception of government performance and the need for health care services results in the identification of four citizen groups: the advantaged, the disadvantaged, the calculative and the acquiescent. The demand for government involvement in the delivery of health care services is strong in the advantaged and disadvantaged groups, and weak in the calculative and acquiescent groups. Citizens demand that the government actually do more in providing services so long as its service quality is good, as is revealed by the positive associations between SERVQUAL (service quality) measures and the demand for more government involvement. Citizens also demand that the government be more involved by way of reforming the health care delivery system. This aspect of citizen demand is revealed by the finding that they especially prefer the government to intervene more in cases where they perceive the delivery process to be corrupt, where they feel politically alienated from the policy process, where they have a higher sense of political efficacy and where they perceive themselves as knowing how to fix the problems in the delivery system. This demand for increased government involvement in reforming the delivery system occurs particularly in the disadvantaged and calculative groups.