Rasprostranjenost i Uzroci "Povlačenja Veza" u Hrvatskom Zdravstvu
Prevalence and Determinants of "String-Pulling" Behaviour in the Croatian Healthcare System

Summary/Abstract: In spite of frequent allegations about the Croatian healthcare system being susceptible to various illegitimate practices, research on this matter has been scarce so far. To start filling the gap, this paper investigates how often and why Croatians rely on friends, relatives and acquaintances in order to achieve an unfair advantage over other users of the healthcare system. As revealed by the representative survey of 2000 individuals, which was conducted in 2015, almost every fifth citizen employed this dishonest strategy during the 12-month period preceding the survey. Although half of the respondents justified their wrongdoings with extremely long waiting lists, logistic regression analysis offered a different conclusion. Explicitly, the study results indicate that citizens exert this misbehaviour more often by automatism than out of real need. Due to a strong embeddedness of this detrimental economic and social practice in Croatian society, it would be more beneficial if combating endeavours were focused on providers of illicit help.

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