Conservation or disappearance? The public provider of home care services in a system of choice

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the position of the public provider (i.e. share of recipients) of home-care services in Swedish municipalities with marketization: a system of choice. Following the literature, an assumption is that the public provider has difficulties in surviving the competition with private home-care providers. In addition, the relevancy of this assumption could differ between different municipal settings. To test this assumption, we use statistical analysis. The main result is that the public provider is a 'strong player' in most municipalities experiencing marketization. However, there exists a variation in this respect -the position varies between municipalities.

Abolishing the Act on System of Choice in Swedish eldercare: on arguments and replacements in the municipalities

“…In Swedish municipalities with LOV in home-care services, the transaction costs may be unreasonable if there are just a few private providers – or none (Jordahl and Persson, 2021; Jansson et al. , 2021; Feltenius and Wide, 2023). Even without any private providers, the costs of administering the choice system remain, for example, to keep the tender document and routines up to date.…”

“…Local self-government is strong, also in statutory and mandatory social services such as eldercare. The principle of local self-government gives Swedish municipalities the right to decide about the marketization of, for example, eldercare and to choose between two different models for procurement (Feltenius and Wide, 2023).…”

”Kunden i fokus!” – Om den kommunala hemtjänstens presentation av verksamheten i en marknadiserad äldreomsorg

“…I denna välfärdsmix är det särskilt två utförare som erhållit uppmärksamhet inom forskningen: Vinstdrivande utförare och ideella utförare (Feltenius & Wide, 2021). Den offentliga utföraren har däremot erhållit betydligt mindre uppmärksamhet.…”