| Hi Bob,
Try writing to The Swedish Institute, Box 7434, S-103 91 Stockholm,
Sweden. They supply all kinds of information about Sweden.
Good luck!
Maria
Stockholm Sweden
|
| Yes, and ask for the lastest edition of fact sheet number FS 76,
entitled appropriately "The Health Care System in Sweden"
There is also a 120 pp book, "The Swedish Health Services in the 1990s"
that may be in print but perhaps that's a bit much for a child's school
report. :-)
I have FS 76, dated Sept 1987, and it's heavy going (4 triple-column
pages of small type). Depending on his age, you may want to help your
son pick out the high points. For example, Sweden's is indeed a
single-payer system (National Health Insurance).
|
| From: [email protected] (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: health care in Sweden -- looking for information
Date: 16 Nov 1993 13:16:20 GMT
Organization: Lehrstuhl fuer Technische Inforrmatik, Uni Tuebingen
In article <[email protected]>
[email protected] (Bob Fleischer, Digital Equip Corp)
writes:
For a school report, my son needs to find information on the
health care system in Sweden. I would appreciate it if
someone could point me to a source of such information (or
post some basic information here).
Some basic information:
Public health care in Sweden is run by the counties. For primary health
care, most people go to county health clinics. A smaller number of
people use private doctors or health care arranged by their employers.
You can also go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital, but they
don't like that if your condition is not urgent, and you have to pay
more.
The local health clinic or private doctor will send you to a specialist
or to a hospital clinic if need be. Hospital clinics will typically not
admit you unless you have been sent from the primary health care (or
from the emergency room).
All public and most private health care is government subsidised. You
pay a nominal sum (about SEK 100, USD 12) for each visit to a doctor or
hospital. Most medicine are also subsidised. You pay SEK 130, USD 16 (I
think) for the first medicine on any one prescription and SEK 10, USD
1.25 for each additional one. If you are hospitalised, you pay a
nominal patient fee for each day (you can think of it as payment for
the meals you get).
There is a limit on how much you have to pay for medical care and
medicine during each 12-month period. It differs from county to county
but is somewhere around SEK 1500 (USD 190). For children of the same
family, this limit is calculated for all the children together.
When you are unable to work due to some illness, the employer has to
pay part of your salary (about 65% to 80%, up to a limit, I think) for
the second to 14th day of any one illness period. The first day you are
ill, he doesn't have to pay anything. For white-collar workers, it is
usual that the employer pays an additional 10% even though he doesn't
have to.
If you have a cronic illness that frequently makes you unable to work
for one or a few days at at time, the employer will have to pay from
the first day.
After the 14th day, a compulsory loss-of-income insurance payed for by
your employer takes over and pays you 80% or 90% (up to a limit).
(These figures have been changed a lot in recent years, so I am unsure
of the exact percentages). After a couple of months of illness you are
supposed to get rehabilitation to be able to return to work or if that
is not possible, get an early retirement.
Similar rules hold when you have to stay home from work to take care of
sick children.
As you can figure, it is very unusual for people in Sweden to take
medical insurance. When people do, it is usually so they can get faster
and/or de luxe treatment at private hospitals.
--
Lars-Henrik Eriksson, Wilhelm-Schickard-Institut, Tuebingen University
On leave from the Swedish Institute of Computer Science until Dec. 8, 1993.
Internet: [email protected] Phone: +49 7071 294284
At SICS: [email protected] Phone: +46 8 752 15 09
|