Abstract

Abstract:

The medical profession is one of the key players in the social sector reforms that have swept Latin America in the last decade, yet we know very little about what motivates physicians’ political activity. This article explores the response of Costa Rican doctors’ organizations to health reforms and their collective interests more generally as expressed in the public arena during the last decade. I argue that organizations representing Costa Rican doctors are motivated by several overlapping goals. Like doctors in advanced industrialized countries, they have attempted to block health reform measures seen as threats to the medical profession’s historical accommodation with the state. Costa Rican doctors have also acted collectively to protect their incomes, but not in the ways discussed by the literature on Latin American political economy and social reforms. The prevailing negative view of medical professionals in Latin America, one that describes them as unprofessional and corrupt, is not supported by this case. Instead, Costa Rican doctors have conducted themselves in a manner usually deemed as acceptable in developed countries. They have guarded professional autonomy, erected entry barriers meant to keep out foreign practitioners, and sought to balance supply and demand in their labor market.

pdf

Share