Health System Overview
Health System Rankings
Health System Outcomes
Health System Coverage
Costs for Consumers
Health System Expenditures
Sweden’s COVID-19 National Policy
Total Health Spending, USD PPP Per Capita (2020): $5,757
(Note: “Health spending measures the final consumption of health care goods and services (i.e. current health expenditure) including personal health care (curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, ancillary services and medical goods) and collective services (prevention and public health services as well as health administration), but excluding spending on investments. Health care is financed through a mix of financing arrangements including government spending and compulsory health insurance (“Government/compulsory”) as well as voluntary health insurance and private funds such as households’ out-of-pocket payments, NGOs and private corporations (“Voluntary”). This indicator is presented as a total and by type of financing (“Government/compulsory”, “Voluntary”, “Out-of-pocket”) and is measured as a share of GDP, as a share of total health spending and in USD per capita (using economy-wide PPPs).”
Source: OECD (2022), Health spending (indicator). doi: 10.1787/8643de7e-en (Accessed on 19 August 2022).
Current Health Expenditure Per Capita In US$ (2019): $5,671
Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.
Current Health Expenditure As Percentage Of Gross Domestic Product (2019): 10.87%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.
Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure As Percentage Of Current Health Expenditure (2019): 13.88%
Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.
Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure Per Capita In US$ (2019): $787
Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.
Out-of-Pocket Spending as Share of Final Household Consumption (%) (2019): 3.4%
Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.
“Health expenditure in Sweden is mostly financed by revenues from local taxes, along with direct transfers from the national government, subsidies to the regions for outpatient medicines and specific national programmes. In 2019, Sweden’s health expenditure amounted to 10.9% of GDP – the third highest share among EU countries and well above the EU average of 9.9% (Figure 8). At EUR 3,837 in 2019 (adjusted for differences in purchasing power), Sweden’s spending on health per person was the fourth highest among EU countries.
“Public expenditure accounted for 85% of total health spending – also considerably above the EU average (80%). Most of the remaining health spending (14%) is paid directly out of pocket by households, while voluntary health insurance only accounted for about 1% of health spending. However, the number of people with private voluntary health insurance coverage has increased over the past 20 years, as this facilitates quicker access to private specialist care.”
Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Sweden: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.
“Outpatient care (including home care) is the largest category of health spending in Sweden, and accounted for just over one third (34%) of all health spending in 2019 (Figure 9). This reflects efforts over the past two decades to contain spending on hospital care by strengthening outpatient services. Spending on long-term care accounted for more than one quarter (26%) of all health spending. Per person, such spending was nearly double the EU average. Inpatient care (typically provided in hospitals) accounted for 22% of all health spending – a lower share than a decade ago and much lower than the EU average (29%).
“Sweden spent a smaller proportion of health expenditure on outpatient pharmaceuticals and medical devices (13%) compared to the EU average (18%). The relatively low spending on pharmaceuticals dispensed outside of hospitals can be attributed in part to lower prices for medicines and relatively high use of generics. Spending on prevention accounted for 3.3% of all health spending – a share higher than the 2.9% EU average.”
Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Sweden: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.
“Sweden’s health system provides universal population coverage for a broad basket of services. The majority of OOP is thus attributable to cost sharing requirements. These include co-payments for most health services adults use in Sweden, including hospitalization. Co-payments for health care visits and hospitalization vary across the 21 counties although policies have converged over time. Co-payments are differentiated to steer patients towards use of primary care during office hours. Co-payments for visits to specialist doctors without a referral are about twice as much as for a regular visit to a primary care doctor. In most counties children below age 20 are exempt from co-payments. There is a combined cap for each 12 month period determined at the national level, maximizing total co-payments for outpatient care. Deductibles, co-payments and caps for prescription drugs and dental care are determined fully at the national level. Dental care for individuals under age 22 is free. For adults, there is a deductible of SEK 1000 (€103) for prescription drugs followed by a stepwise increase in subsidies ending in a 12 months cap of SEK 2200 (€226). For dental care to adults, the deductible is SEK 3000 (€308), followed by increase in co-insurance to 85% above SEK 15,000 but without an overall cap. Additional minor changes in terms of additional subsidies for dental care to elderly were introduced in 2013. In 2009, prescription cost-sharing policy was changed such that patients now usually pay the full price for generic alternatives that are not the lowest cost generic. In 2012 cost-sharing limits on prescriptions as well as for outpatient services were increased (from SEK 1800 to SEK 2200 (€ 185–226) and SEK 900 to SEK 1100 (€ 92–113) respectively). These increased cost sharing requirements seem not to have had great impact on the average growth rate in 2004–2014, which was lower than in the previous period. This can perhaps be explained by the fact that the requirements were relatively minor and partially offset by better dental benefits.”
Rice, Thomas et al. “Revisiting out-of-pocket requirements: trends in spending, financial access barriers, and policy in ten high-income countries.” BMC health services research vol. 18,1 371. 18 May. 2018, doi:10.1186/s12913-018-3185-8.
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 sixteen other nations.
Page last updated Dec. 28, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.
