A Brief Note On The Swedish Healthcare System

Health care has been a controversial topic of discussion for all Americans since it was put in effect many years ago. Currently the biggest debate of Healthcare up to date is Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a Health care Reform that is a governmental attempt to make basic health care easily obtainable. However, there are no benefits without cost in situations like this, and upon that are different viewpoints on the subject thus creating political debates discussing if it is ethically correct. The overall goal that Obamacare hopes to accomplish is that through specific changes through insurance companies, industry standards, and patient guarantees a healthier America will be produced. Obamacare has its ups and downs for both the generally agreeing democratic viewpoints and the opposing republican side. Both viewpoints have their own beliefs about how Health care works and Obamacare is somewhat in between on this. Most arguments on Obamacare deal with Medicaid being constitutional and if Obamacare truly reduces the total cost of health care for individuals and in the government.

The infrastructure of the United States healthcare system has long been a point of contention for many, especially with the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act by President Obama, which serves to reform the past healthcare system into a more socialized Universal Healthcare system. Proponents of Universal Healthcare in the United States like to point to the success of countries such as Brazil, Thailand, and Canada to name a few, who have in fact adopted a form of Universal Healthcare, but

beginning of Sweden’s long history of providing medical care to all. In 1946, Sweden adopted a national health insurance program called The National Health Insurance Act. This act called for coverage for all citizens funded mainly by the government through local income tax revenue with control being in the hands of county governments. This includes providing dental care up until a person is 20. Not ideal, yet more than the United States government has been willing to implement. So why doesn’t The United States have universal health care for it’s tax paying citizens? The United States government has developed on the back of a different psychosocial mentality in comparison to Sweden. America was built upon the disposition and belief that

In recent years, health care has been a huge topic in public debates, legislations, and even in deciding who will become the next president. There have been many acts, legislations, and debates on what the country has to do in regards to health care. According to University of Phoenix Read Me First HCS/235 (n.d.), “How health care is financed influences access to health care, how health care is delivered, the quality of health care provided, and its cost”.

The Swiss system contains 26 Swiss cantons, which are responsible for planning and delivering of health services, partial financing of hospitals, and provision of subsidies for insurance premiums. The

U.S. health care reform is currently one of the most heavily discussed topics in health discourse and politics. After former President Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform in the mid-1990s, the Bush administration showed no serious efforts at achieving universal health coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans. With Barack Obama as the current U.S. President, health care reform is once again a top priority. President Obama has made a promise to “provide affordable, comprehensive, and portable health coverage for all Americans…” by the end of his first term (Barackobama.com). The heated debate between the two major political parties over health care reform revolves around how to pay for it and more importantly, whether it

Then we have the regional level of care which its major responsibility is that of financing and actually providing health care to country councils. Every four years a representative selected by the people of the public regarding the country councils, then the country council displays and takes action into place where they believe to be improvement or change in hospital structure and management whilst at the same time ensuring good quality health care delivery. Country councils as contribute in the action of regulating prices as well as the service are covered by private companies, to ensure no disagreements regarding the regulation private companies are obliged to enter into a form of contract. Patients or clients of private provided are not allowed to receive a type of rebate or refund if the private company has not entered into a form of contract with the country councils. The overall aim and commitment of the country councils must under the regional level of care is to ensure absolute and aim to provide the up most service to individuals of Sweden with the highest quality of health care in all aspects and aim for enhancing health care promotion and awareness for residents. Then we have the local level, which is

The health care system in Norway is organized in three levels: local, regional, and national. The local level is represented by 434 municipalities; each municipality is responsible for providing all the services under primary health care to their population. The regional level has the responsibility for specialist health care and is represented by five regions. The national level is responsible for health care overall and is managed

Denmark is a small high-income country with a high population density, is governed by a constitutional monarchy, has a central parliament and is administratively divided into regions, municipalities and has 2 dependencies (Greenland and the Faroe Islands) (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). It has a national health service (funded by general taxation) and a decentralized healthcare system in which the individual regions run most services and the municipalities are responsible for some public health services (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). However, a process of (re) centralization (under the structural reform of 2007) has been taking place, which has lowered the number of regions from 14 to 5 and the

It is available to all residents, free of charge. The quality of the care is high with popular patient satisfaction. Citizens are able to choose a doctor and the entire health care system is much more cost effective than the United States. Average life expectancy for men is 78 years and women is 82 years. Overall, the Danish are not only the happiest country in the world, but also one of the fittest. They cycle and walk to work, are often part of some type of sports club, and eat healthy. The Danish also practice the tradition of Hygge, which means creating a warm environment and enjoying the good things in life with good

Waiting lists for treatments are rare. Medical facilities are equipped with the latest technology and the statutory health insurance scheme provides nearly full cover for most medical treatments and medicines. Almost everybody in Germany has access to this system, irrespective of income or social status.

Sweden gives everyone equal access to health care services under a largely decentralized, taxpayer-funded system (Swedish Institute 2014). The health care system in Sweden is financed primarily through taxes levied by county councils and municipalities. Sweden 's health care system is organized and managed on three levels: national, regional and local. At the national level, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs establishes principles and guidelines for care and sets the political agenda for health and medical care. At the regional level, responsibility for financing and providing health care is decentralized to the county councils. A county council is a political body whose representatives are elected by the public every four years on the same day as the national general election. At the local level, municipalities are responsible for maintaining the immediate environment of citizens such as water supply and social welfare services (Swedish Institute 2014). Costs for health and medical care amount to approximately nine percent of Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP), a figure that has remained fairly stable since the early 1980s. Seventy-one percent of health care is funded through local taxation, and county councils have the right to collect income tax. The state finances the bulk of health care costs, with the patient paying a small nominal fee for examination. The state pays for approximately ninety seven percent of medical costs (InterNations 2014). In

There are pros and cons for any health care system researched. Obviously no country in the world has perfected the job of balancing supply and demand in a cost effect manner. Everyone has complaints about how the government runs things in their country and everyone has horror stories about how they have been treated at some point by the medical profession. After all of my research I believe that Sweden has incorporated many good aspects of service while only having a few downfalls. With continued reform Sweden’s healthcare system could become a highly efficient system.

The German health care system is one of the best health system in the world. This evolved system distinguished in many perspectives. Those are the aspects of German health system that will be covered in this report: the structure and characteristics of the German health care system, comparison with the Australian health system, evaluation for the organization and administration of the health system, and policy development in Germany.

Finland provides healthcare and financial protection to all of its citizens. Universal access to health services for all residents has been a fundamental principle in the Finnish health policy for several decades. Equity in access to adequate health and medical services is guaranteed to all residents in the Constitution. The stated goals of Finnish health policy are equal distribution of health and diminishing health differences between socioeconomic and other population groups. The objectives include levelling health care costs, equal access to health services, use of services according to need, and provision of high quality services for all. Finland has a highly diversified health care system. The first, municipal health care, is operated by municipalities that are responsible for arranging public health care and social services for their residents. The second, private health care, as the name suggests is private health care providers mainly focusing on out-patient services. However, there are also a few private hospitals in Finland. Private health services can be purchased directly by individuals but also employers and more rarely, but increasingly, municipalities purchase health services from private providers. The third, occupational health care, is a product of legislation that says employers are obliged to provide free preventive occupational health care for their employees. These health services can come from private health care, municipal health care, or other