The Transformation of Ukrainian Health Care System: The Story of the Policy Cycle

Three months into the Ukrainian people’s battle against the corrupt government headed by then-president Victor Yanukovych in 2014, the president fled the country, and the opposition to his government were swept into power through a popular movement known in Ukraine as The Revolution of Dignity. It was too early, however, to celebrate victory, as Ukrainians were demanding more than simply a change of faces; they wanted a complete overhaul of the political system. From the stage on Maidan Square in central Kyiv, members of the new government proclaimed their willingness to implement a broad set reforms. In order to document and concretize these promises, a coalition of civic organizations that had been formed during the Revolution of Dignity spelled out specific demands concerning systemic changes in a document called “18 major areas that require urgent reform.” These demands were endorsed by those who would later form the “For a European Ukraine” parliamentary coalition within the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.