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Chapter Three: Privatisation and Marketisation Within a Healthcare System: The Swedish Experience

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Navigating Private and Public Healthcare

Abstract

Sweden has a universal, tax-financed healthcare system which provides a comprehensive package of health services to the entire population at little or no out of pocket cost for the individual. When the system was implemented during the post-war period, it was believed by the ruling social democratic party that a virtually exclusive public provision of services would ensure that the system remained egalitarian and health services would be distributed on the basis of medical need, rather than employment or ability to pay. The market-orienting reforms undertaken in the system during the 1990s and 2000s, which led to an increased share of private, predominantly for-profit care providers, appears to have undermined these principles. The entry of private care providers has also led to a growing market for voluntary private health insurance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Government, Statsvetenskapliga Institutionen, Uppsala universitet, Uppsala, Sweden

    Paula Blomqvist

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  1. Paula Blomqvist
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Correspondence to Paula Blomqvist .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Fran Collyer

  2. School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Karen Willis

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Blomqvist, P. (2020). Chapter Three: Privatisation and Marketisation Within a Healthcare System: The Swedish Experience. In: Collyer, F., Willis, K. (eds) Navigating Private and Public Healthcare. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9208-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9208-6_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9207-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9208-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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