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'Socialist' Swedes Take to Private Health Insurance
reason ^ | january 22, 2014 | J.D. Tuccille

Posted on 01/23/2014 6:58:01 AM PST by lowbridge

Sweden, a country famous for a welfare state that has actually been trimmed back substantially in recent years, is experiencing a phenomenon unlikely to bring cheer to those Americans who think the answer to Obamacare's problems is more government involvement in medicine. Tired of long waits and inadequate care, Swedes increasingly purchase private health insurance policies to gain access to the care the state can't provide.

-snip

Why the growth? From The Local:

"It's quicker to get a colleague back to work if you have an operation in two weeks' time rather than having to wait for a year," privately insured Anna Norlander told Sveriges Radio on Friday. "It's terrible that I, as a young person, don't feel I can trust the health care system to take care of me."

In a separate article about Sweden's shrinking welfare state, The Local also notedthat "visitors are sometimes surprised to learn about year-long waiting times for cancer patients."

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: healthcare; privatehealth; privateinsurance; sweden; switzerland

1 posted on 01/23/2014 6:58:01 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: lowbridge

Interesting that they allow that much freedom to the citizens.

They don’t have to pay a fine for leaving the govt system?


2 posted on 01/23/2014 7:00:35 AM PST by SaxxonWoods (....Let It Burn...)
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To: lowbridge
""It's terrible that I, as a young person, don't feel I can trust the health care system to take care of me.""

Your gov't is just not that into you.

It's all a value to society government equation that is "solved" with you as the variable.

3 posted on 01/23/2014 7:01:23 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: lowbridge

So the liberals are always saying: “We want health care like the UK and france has...”

Can we say: “We want health insurance like they got in sweeden”

Because liberals always are looking for greener pastures because they poop in their own nests...


4 posted on 01/23/2014 7:08:04 AM PST by GraceG
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To: GraceG

Because the rich libs will always have acess to private health care. No way in the world pelozi, reid or bammy are going to wait a year for treatment if they have cancer.

and as we say with the “lion” of the sinate, kennedy, the rich will pay whatever is necessary to keep their butt alive as long as they can. so much for telling granny to take the pain pill.


5 posted on 01/23/2014 7:14:42 AM PST by ealgeone (obama, border)
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To: SaxxonWoods

re: They don’t have to pay a fine for leaving the govt system?

Haven’t read the article to see if it says so or not, but I assume with the extremely high taxes Swedes pay, there is no need for a fine because the citizen who wants private insurance will be paying for both anyway.


6 posted on 01/23/2014 7:16:13 AM PST by Nevadan
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To: zot; Interesting Times

lessons learned


7 posted on 01/23/2014 7:22:47 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: lowbridge

I believe that this is the “best achievable result” for us, given the propensity of Americans (as evidenced by their voting record)for government healthcare.

I believe that a “free” Public Healthcare System - with public hospitals - will always be with us - essentially Medicare/Medicaid. So move that to public hospitals.

For folks who want to pay for convenience and quality - and exclude those who for whatever reason can’t or won’t pay, we should have a private system.

If you show up to the emergency room of a private hospital, assuming you can even make it that far, you get shifted to the government hospital ASAP.

In this way everyone will “get what they pay for” in healthcare, and the private side will not be burdened by the folks who want it for free - so quality and cost-competition will guide them.

The public side will be awful, will be funded at whatever level is allocated through the political process - which will always be “not enough” but at least the folks who pay all the bills will not have to wait behind those who won’t pay.

It’s sort of the way it’s done in the UK and Australia.

I think it’s inevitable here.


8 posted on 01/23/2014 7:25:37 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer

I believe that a “free” Public Healthcare System - with public hospitals - will always be with us - essentially Medicare/Medicaid. So move that to public hospitals.

___________________

Charity hosptials have always been with us. Some were famous like Bellveue and they taught generations of med students. Best system


9 posted on 01/23/2014 7:27:43 AM PST by Chickensoup (V)
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To: lowbridge

I have family in England. My sister has kidney stones on both sides and had to wait over six months to be looked at. She got her fist surgery after waiting another three months, then was suppose to have another Jan 1st but was bumped because the hospitals were over crowded. She had her surgery last week at a private hospital after the NHS redirected her over there.


10 posted on 01/23/2014 7:42:01 AM PST by dragonblustar (Psalm 37:7)
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To: Chickensoup

“Charity hosptials have always been with us. “

There will be a continued demand for charity hospitals...but they must not ever come to be dependent upon public money or they’ll be destroyed.


11 posted on 01/23/2014 8:09:39 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: lowbridge
'Socialist' Swedes Take to Private Health Insurance

Last time I checked, businesses in Sweden were mostly privately owned and taxed very little. True, the Swedes have a high income tax rate, but the label socialist is not right.

12 posted on 01/23/2014 8:22:14 AM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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To: lowbridge

If we allowed open private competition against the government, it would be a wipe out.


13 posted on 01/23/2014 8:49:20 AM PST by lurk
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To: Nevadan
Haven’t read the article to see if it says so or not, but I assume with the extremely high taxes Swedes pay, there is no need for a fine because the citizen who wants private insurance will be paying for both anyway.

Probably so... Same as having to pay public school taxes even though you send your child to private school

14 posted on 01/23/2014 8:53:39 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: GreyFriar
lessons learned

Yes. Better late than never.

15 posted on 01/23/2014 9:43:51 AM PST by zot
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To: 1234; A knight without armor; afraidfortherepublic; AIM-54; Allan; american colleen; AndyPH; ...
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.
16 posted on 01/23/2014 10:31:54 AM PST by Charles Henrickson (Swedish Ping List master)
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To: lowbridge

Nothing new. When my grandfather had lung cancer in 1981, he had to come to America to be treated. The Swedes offered a hospice. He lived another 22 years before being involuntarily euthanized in Sweden.


17 posted on 01/23/2014 12:20:24 PM PST by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: lowbridge

As the linked article says, most of these insurances are paid by their employers who want to be sure that if someone needs an operation or whatever, they will get it quickly.

Swedish health care has “always” (i.e. for a long time) been very good - once you get access to it. The long queues have been the problem.

We do have a non-socialist government since 2006 and they are slowly turning things around. There is an election coming up this year and the poll figures don’t look good at the moment though. The media is very much leaning to the left, this contributes as well of course.


18 posted on 01/27/2014 12:22:21 PM PST by Mentat
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