Why Sweden is Privatizing Health Care
…[T]he average wait time (from referral to start of treatment) for “intermediary and high risk” prostate cancer is 220 days. In the case of lung cancer, the wait between an appointment with a specialist and a treatment decision is 37 days.
Stories of people in Sweden suffering stroke, heart failure and other serious medical conditions who were denied or unable to receive urgent care are frequently reported in Swedish media. Recent examples include a one-month-old infant with cerebral hemorrhage for whom no ambulance was made available, and an 80-year-old woman with suspected stroke who had to wait four hours for an ambulance. (WSJ)
“Sweden is praised as a rare example of a socialist country that works.”
It has been for years, touting both education and healthcare.
Their free college is pretty sweet
That everyone pays for ******
60% for life!
“For example, Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare reports that as of 2013, the average wait time (from referral to start of treatment) for “intermediary and high risk” prostate cancer is 220 days. In the case of lung cancer, the wait between an appointment with a specialist and a treatment decision is 37 days.”
Now while this is a completely rational statement. What is their comparable mortality?
If it’s less that would be super scary. Considering that many people die in US hospitals from infections contracted there who knows.
Plausible but unlikely
“Sweden has started to self-correct, choosing a more sustainable path: private health-care options that allow for competition, customer choice and better overall care for Swedes. America should learn from Sweden’s experience and follow the Nordic country’s recent example, turning away from government-controlled health care to embrace a free-market solution.”
What I can take from this though is that the baseline care is government, while care for those with money is private.
That could end being a comparable system in the US. Especially with the ability to opt out of exchanges.
Our systems may become closer than we think
Well hybrids are all but inevitable
“There is no short cut to well-functioning, affordable health care. Sweden’s undesirable experience shows this very clearly.”
The next steps for Sweden could create the world’s best healthcare system
A hybrid system could prove useful, but when private costs become lower than government what will happen?
The system topples?
That would be frightening to say the least. I would imagine government costs would go down to keep pace with private
Seriously, you’re making comparisons to a country with a population equivalent to that of Michigan?
Good points along the way, but Americans are such perfectionists.
Up until about 1960, 80 year olds in rural areas might have to wait 24 hours for an ambulance.
And the death rate was almost certainly higher.
It is good to have reduced that death rate. But if we slip back a little, we are not a scandal.