May 15, 2025 The WHO released its World Health Report 2025 on May 15, 2025. According to the WHO: "An estimated 1.4 billion more people were living healthier by the end of 2024, surpassing the 1 billion target. The progress in healthier lives was driven by reduction in tobacco use, improved air quality and better access to water, hygiene, and sanitation. But progress towards increased coverage of essential health services and protection from emergencies lagged; only 431 million more people gained access to essential health services without financial hardship, and close to 637 million more people were better protected from…
Support Grows for Government-Run Health System
Gallup recently released results from its annual Health and Healthcare Poll, which are based on telephone interviews conducted November 6-20, 2024 with a random sample of 1,001 adults living in the US. The new data show that support for the US adopting a government-run healthcare system is growing.According to Gallup (Jeffrey M. Jones, "More in U.S. See Health Coverage as Government Responsibility," Gallup, Dec. 9, 2024):"Americans divide about evenly on this question, with 46% saying the U.S. should have a government-run healthcare system, while 49% are in favor of a system based mostly on private health insurance. Only in a…
Commonwealth Fund Releases Newest Installment of its Mirror Mirror Series of National Health System Comparisons
September 21, 2024 The Commonwealth Fund has released the newest installment of its Mirror Mirror series, which compares various national health systems with the US.According to Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System:"Key Findings: The top three countries are Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, although differences in overall performance between most countries are relatively small. The only clear outlier is the U.S., where health system performance is dramatically lower."Conclusion: The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector. While the other nine countries differ in…
Learning From Others
June 14, 2023 Professor Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS, is the Chief Health Officer of Indiana University. In a guest essay comparing the US health care system with the systems of five other nations that was published June 13, 2023 in the New York Times ("I Studied Five Countries’ Health Care Systems. We Need to Get More Creative With Ours."), he writes:"America could learn a thing or two from these other countries. We could take inspiration from them and potentially improve access, quality and cost."Though the Canadian system may be more familiar with people in the US due to simple…
Waiting Time and Choice of Provider In Sweden
"A free choice of primary care provider and freedom of establishment for accredited primary care providers is nationally mandated in Sweden. There is no formal gatekeeping role in most regions and patients are free to contact specialists directly. Furthermore, a health care guarantee act stipulates maximum waiting times for a range of services. This is intended to strengthen the patient’s position in accessing services. The act describes a ‘0–7–90–90’ rule, meaning same day contact with the health care system; seeing a GP within seven days; consulting a specialist within 90 days; and waiting for no more than 90 days after…
Number of Physicians and Hospital Beds in Sweden
"As shown in Figure 7, the number of physicians and nurses per population in Sweden is well above the EU average with 4.2 practicing doctors per 1 000 population (compared with an EU average of 3.6) and 11.1 practicing nurses per 1 000 population (compared with an EU average of 8.4). Most physicians (70%) have a recognised specialisation, and almost one-quarter of them are specialists in general medicine."Since 1990, Sweden has reduced the number of acute care hospital beds and the ratio per population is now the lowest of all EU countries, with only 2.3 acute care beds per 1…
Sweden’s Decentralized Health System
"The responsibility for financing, purchasing and providing all individual health services in Sweden is decentralised to 21 regions. Regionally and locally established taxes are the basis for revenue collection, but a national redistribution scheme is designed to equalise the capacity to provide health services across the country. The state is responsible for regulation and supervision. It provides additional funding through general block grants, earmarked funding for outpatient pharmaceuticals and specific national programmes. The regions increasingly undertake initiatives to work cooperatively to share investments and cluster services. This is often initiated and supported by the national government, for example when six…
Concerns About Sweden’s Health System In 2018 Election
"Health indicators for the population are good—life expectancy and cancer and heart attack survival rates are among the highest in Europe according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures from 2017, and the country also came in the top five in the Lancet’s most recent Healthcare Access and Quality Index."But most Swedes will agree that, in recent years, concerns over whether provision of that care is faltering are being raised on a more regular basis."In the run-up to the elections, local media reported on concerns about waiting times, care continuity, under-capacity, and severe staff shortages."According to official data,…
Healthcare Reform Was A Major Issue In Sweden’s 2018 Elections
"The run-up to parliamentary elections [in 2018], which delivered a hung parliament, saw a strong rise in support for the Sweden Democrats, a nationalist party, and was dominated by debates over immigration and the welfare state."As in many previous elections in the country, health care was one of the top issues for voters. But this year, pre-election campaigning highlighted how many Swedes are beginning to raise serious concerns about one of the pillars of the country’s society."'There is a perception among the public that the health-care system is worsening”, Niklas Bolin, a political analyst and associate professor at Mid Sweden…
Sweden’s Economy
"Sweden is a strong knowledge-based economy, well integrated in global value chains, which ensures high standards of living, well-being, income and gender equality, as well as a high environmental quality to its inhabitants. Growth has been broad-based over the past five years, with consumption, investment and exports all contributing significantly. Meanwhile, strong domestic demand has pushed up imports (Figure 1)."Measures of the output gap and indicators of capacity utilisation suggest the economy is operating close to full capacity (Figure 2). Even so, monetary policy remains expansionary, while fiscal policy is slightly expansionary."Sweden’s employment rate is the highest in the European…