Valfrihet inom primärvården i landsbygdskommuner

Sammanfattning: Some of the base ingredients in new public management and neoliberal governance are freedom of choice and competition. The freedom of choice act in 2010 is one of the largest reforms in Swedish health care during the last decades. Marketization and privatization in primary care was introduced to increase the possibility for patient’s choice to meet individuals’ expectations. The aim was to introduce competition between actors to sort out failing actors in advance of other ones. The purpose of this paper has been to investigate how individuals in rural areas of Sweden are using their right to choose primary health care provider. In many ways the accessibility to choose are lower in rural areas due to lack of primary health care providers since new providers almost always establish themselves in more urban areas. What makes individuals choose their primary care provider when the consequence is that the traveling distance becomes longer, and what aspects do they think are the most important when they make their choice. Do they feel that they even have a choice to make?