title: The medicine user--lost in translation? Analysis of the official political debate prior to the deregulation of the Danish medicine distribution system.
abstract: This paper presents results from a qualitative analysis of official documents dealing with the deregulation of the Danish medicine distribution system, 2001. In an attempt to clarify how consumerism within health care is manifested in policy, this study explores how central actors in the political process explicitly referred to the needs, interests and problems of the users of medicine. The results show that explicit references to the users of medicine by central actors in the political process were limited. Based on this we argue that in this case, although the debate centred on liberal ideas it seems as if chief values of classic liberalism were lost in the process of translating a political idea into political practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Pharmacy, Research Centre for Quality in Medicine Use, The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universitetsparken 2, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mikkel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noerreslet
authors.forename: Jakob B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: Janine M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Traulsen
mesh_terms: D003718:Denmark; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011057:Politics