%0 Journal Article %T Patient Choice Has Become the Standard Practice in Healthcare Provision: It is Time to Extend its Meaning; Comment on “Is Patient Choice the Future of Health Care Systems?” %J International Journal of Health Policy and Management %I Kerman University of Medical Sciences %Z 2322-5939 %A Ewert, Benjamin %D 2013 %\ 09/14/2013 %V 1 %N 3 %P 227-228 %! Patient Choice Has Become the Standard Practice in Healthcare Provision: It is Time to Extend its Meaning; Comment on “Is Patient Choice the Future of Health Care Systems?” %K Patient Choice %K Healthcare Users’ Roles %K Voice %K Interpersonal Trust %K Equity %R 10.15171/ijhpm.2013.42 %X The key argument of this commentary is that patient choice has a broader meaning than suggested by consumerist choice models. In increasingly marketized health care systems with diversified and knowledge-based service arrangements, patients are continuously obliged to choose insurers, physicians or hospitals and treatments—whether they like it or not. However, health care users refer to a wide range of roles and resources while taking health-related decisions. They are patients, consumers and co-producers at the same time. Therefore, as it is argued, healthcare policies have to recognize users’ multiple identities by providing more balanced choice frameworks. In particular, two aspects are crucial: first, opportunities for users to voice worries and concerns and to co-design default options of health care choices; secondly, taking the significance of interpersonal trust in choice-making processes into account. %U https://www.ijhpm.com/article_2772_56a6dcd87d0117919eb10e3c545be188.pdf