Discourses of social movements about the privatization of Catalan health services

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the discourses about the health privatization from the analysis of interviews and manifests of three Catalan movements: Centre d’Anàlisis i Programes Sanitaris (Caps), Grup de Defensa de Sanitat Pública (15MBCNSalut) and Plataforma Pel Dret a la Salut (PDS). The content analysis has been adopted as methodology. The analysis has evidenced a dichotomy between public and private systems as a duality that structures discourses favoring the public model and the great efforts made by the movements to guarantee that model. This has shaped the movements as a revolutionary force that defends the public system from private threats by assuming that it essentially represents the people’s ideals. The debate between the traditional and the new in social action has been central to the analysis, as well as the problem of coexistence of different models of action.