OVERVIEW OF DENMARK’S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Population Insurance Coverage For A Core Set Of Healthcare Services (%) (2017):
Public Coverage: 100%; Primary Private Health Coverage: %; Total: 100%

Note: “Population coverage for health care is defined here as the share of the population eligible for a core set of health care services – whether through public programmes or primary private health insurance. The set of services is country-specific but usually includes consultations with doctors, tests and examinations, and hospital care. Public coverage includes both national health systems and social health insurance. On national health systems, most of the financing comes from general taxation, whereas in social health insurance systems, financing typically comes from a combination of payroll contributions and taxation. Financing is linked to ability-to-pay. Primary private health insurance refers to insurance coverage for a core set of services, and can be voluntary or mandatory by law (for some or all of the population.”)”

Source: OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.

Annual household out-of-pocket payment, current USD per capita (2017): $797

Source: Global Health Expenditure Database. Health expenditure series. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Oct. 6, 2020.

“The Danish health system remains decentralised for service provision and public health, although there has been gradual centralisation of overall planning and regulation to the national level (Box 1). The national government takes the lead in regulation, supervision, general planning and quality monitoring; the regions are responsible for detailed planning, defining and delivering health services in hospital; and the municipalities have responsibility for health promotion, disease prevention, rehabilitation, home care and non-specialised long-term care. National health authorities set standards and assesses the quality of care.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Residents in Denmark are generally required to register with a GP who provides primary care as well as playing a gatekeeping role for access to hospital and specialist care. GPs are predominantly self-employed in private solo or group practices and contract with regional health authorities.

“Almost all hospitals are owned and operated by the Danish regions (fewer than 5 % of hospital beds are in private hospitals). Most hospitals provide both inpatient and outpatient care, as well as 24-hour emergency care.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Publicly financed health coverage is universal and all primary and secondary health services are provided free of charge on referral. User charges are mainly applied to prescription medicines, dental care and glasses obtained out of hospital. Patients also pay for a number of other outpatient services, such as physiotherapy or psychological treatment. Waiting times for hospital treatment and access to private specialists have been a concern, but a waiting time guarantee of one month introduced in 2007 (now a diagnosis guarantee) has contributed to reducing waiting times.”

Source: Karsten Vrangbæk. “Denmark.” In Voluntary health insurance in Europe: Country experience [Internet]. Sagan A, Thomson S, editors. Copenhagen (Denmark): European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; 2016. Observatory Studies Series, No. 42.

“With the exception of a few central state hospitals, health care in Denmark has been the responsibility of the towns and counties since the middle of the 18th century; consequently, there is a long tradition of decentralized administration in the health sector (see section 2.2). The 1970 reform of the public administrative structure, which reduced the number of counties from 24 to 14 and the number of municipalities from over 1300 to 275, led to both centralization and decentralization of responsibilities. While many state tasks were transferred to the counties, responsibility for the hospitals moved from local hospital boards to the county councils. Ironically, though, the state’s tendency to intervene in the administration of the health care sector has increased over time since this reform. Consequently, tension has been rising with regard to the counties’ autonomy. The 2007 reform allocated new tasks and responsibilities to both the state and the municipalities, and thereby involved a certain level of both centralization and decentralization, while reducing the role of the regions (see Chapter 6).”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and several other nations.

Page last updated Sept. 20, 2021 by Doug McVay, Editor.