Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Sweden) - Do people have a right to affordable healthcare?

care should be provided on equal terms and according to need, that it should be under democratic control and financed on the basis of solidarity

 Ministry of Health Sweden (English pdf)

Health and medical care is a core part of the welfare
system and is one of the issues in society that the
Swedish people are most concerned about. Swedish
health and medical care is based on the principles
that care should be provided on equal terms and ac-
cording to need, that it should be under democratic
control and financed on the basis of solidarity. Health
and medical care is to be characterised by high qual-
ity and good accessibility in which the patient comes
first.

 

Patient fees
In Sweden, as in most other comparable countries,
fees play a relatively limited role as a source of
finance in the health and medical care system. What
patients themselves pay amounts to only a minor
part of medical costs. Most is financed out of tax
revenues.
Within certain limits, county councils are free to
decide how much patients must pay. Fees are diffe-
rentiated to direct patients to the right level of care.
It costs less to go to primary care than to a hospital
emergency department. There is a high-cost protec-
tion scheme that means no patient ever needs to pay
more than a total of SEK 900 over a 12-month period.
Pharmaceutical costs
Use of pharmaceuticals is now one of the most
important methods of treating diseases. However,
pharmaceutical products are often expensive and the
costs of this treatment are high. Total costs for phar-
maceutical products came to nearly SEK 31 billion
in 2006. Patients paid SEK 8.6 billion of this sum
themselves. To prevent pharmaceutical costs
becoming too high for the patient, we have pharma-
ceutical benefits in Sweden. Under this scheme, no
patient ever has to pay more than SEK 1800 over a 12-
month period for prescription drugs covered by the
benefits. The benefits also include some disposabletion, freedom to choose between treatment options,
and the right to a second opinion in cases of life-
threatening or other particularly serious diseases or
injuries.
 

Posted on 6/22/2008 2:18:36 PM by Lil' TuffyApproved 6/25/2008 5:28 PM