Worth to get sick in Hungary? Examination of the Hungarian public and private healthcare = Érdemes-e megbetegedni Magyarországon? A magyar állami és magán kórházak vizsgálata

Absztrakt (kivonat)

According to recent trends and personal experiences, the Hungarian public health care system is in a dramatic quality downfall. Private health care services started to become popular among the members of the society. European trends of more citizens opting for private health services rather than sticking to the public ones clearly show that Hungary is among the less successful states when it comes to offering adequate public health care services. While there are no comprehensive data about the amount of people using private healthcare, from the Visegrád countries, Hungarians spend the most on private healthcare to avoid the long waiting periods or the unacceptable conditions of the healthcare facilities. In the current paper, we aim to examine the different age groups preferences about the public and private health care services, and the factors behind these preferences. We also plan to explore the extent of migration from attending private healthcare instead of public healthcare. To this end, besides secondary data, we implement a questionnaire among Hungarian people about their health care service habits (n=401). Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected and analysed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The research is structured around three research questions: (i) Is there a significant difference between the perception of public and private health care? (ii) What is the relationship between different demographic variables and perceptions of public and private health care? (iii) What perspectives can be identified in the perception of health and whether there is a relationship between how public and private health care is perceived?. Two sample (paired) t-test, Pearson Chi-Square and Spearman Correlation and K-mean cluster analysis were used for the analysis. Our results show that there is a significant difference in the perception of public and private health care. Numerous demographic variables affect the perception of health care, such as age, marital status, the living place. Overall, perspectives can be identified in society, mainly characterised by trust in doctors and general satisfaction with health care. With our results, we aim to shine light on the shortcomings of the Hungarian public healthcare system, which can be developed, and we hope to contribute to the discourse with theoretical and practical benefits.