Evaluating the impact of the 2010 Swedish choice reform in primary health care on avoidable hospitalization and socioeconomic inequities: an interrupted time series analysis using register data

The study suggests that the increase in private health care centers, enabled by the choice reform, contributed to a small improvement when it comes to overall PHC performance, but simultaneously to increased socioeconomic inequities in PHC performance. This duality in the impact of the Swedish reform also reflects the arguments in the European health policy debate on patient choice PHC models, with hopes of improved performance but fears of increased inequities.