ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the nature of disequilibrium in the health care market and critiquing the application of the neoclassical theory of demand to health care. The fundamental problem within the health care market in the United Kingdom is a chronic state of disequilibrium, where demand is consistently, and significantly, greater than the supply of services devoted to meet it. The chapter presents the importance of the citizen, and the growth of 'consumerism' in health care and proposes an alternative conceptualisation of demand. When citizens find that their political and 'economic' demands are not met they can then if they so wish activate a separate set of citizenship rights: the 'right' to choose their health care from the private sector. Citizenship emphasises rights of access to services, but leaves vague the detail of what actually can be expected, and, more importantly, it leaves out the detail of what is expected of the individual.
