Swedes buy insurance to skip long health queues

[hack89]

More than half a million Swedes now have private health insurance, showed a new review from industry organization Swedish Insurance (Svensk Försäkring). In eight out of ten cases, the person's employer had offered them the private insurance deal.

"It's quicker to get a colleague back to work if you have an operation in two weeks' time rather than having to wait for a year," privately insured Anna Norlander told Sveriges Radio on Friday. "It's terrible that I, as a young person, don't feel I can trust the health care system to take care of me."

Health system wait times in Sweden were deemed so lengthy that they pulled Sweden down the European ranking despite the country having technically advanced healthcare at its disposal.

"The Swedish score for technically excellent healthcare services is, as ever, dragged down by the seemingly never-ending story of access/waiting time problems," the reported noted, underlining that the national efforts to guarantee patient care had not helped to cut the delays significantly

http://www.thelocal.se/20140117/hospital-queues-tied-to-insurance-trend

Interesting insight on Swedish healthcare.

[Vinca]

1. It's like batting a hornet's nest.

Let big insurance in and it's only a matter of time before you get stung.

[Human101948]

2. Yet they still are significantly better than the United States and at a fraction of the cost...

The United States health care system is the most expensive in the world, but this report and prior editions consistently show the U.S. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance. Among the 11 nations studied in this report—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2010, 2007, 2006, and 2004 editions of Mirror, Mirror. Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last or near last on dimensions of access, efficiency, and equity.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror

World Health Organization Ranking; The World’s Health Systems

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 USA

http://thepatientfactor.com/canadian-health-care-information/world-health-organizations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/

[hifiguy]

5. Don't go confusing the apologists for the profiteering

vampires with silly things like facts.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. My parents use a combination of Medicare and supplemented private health insurance

It's difficult to make the payments at times, but worth it. I feel bad for those who can't. But the billing and coverage when they need it has been worry free.

[Jim Beard]

9. Its what I use but it should be the same for all. the poor are the ones not paying the

the 20% of part B and that is because they can't. Some take medicare Advantage take control of regular Medicare and the prescription drugs. There are limits and one doesn't know from one year to the next what they will be.

My mother is 89 years old and her supplement cost almost $500 per month and she had a heart valve replaced which cost her NOTHING. She also has the prescription drug part B at arounf $65 a month straight Medicare is a little over $100 a month.

This way she keeps all her assets. I don't know how many people realize that MEDICAID requires you to sign over property assets before they will pay for a huge bill.

[hunter]

4. We buy insurance and suffer long queues...

... or we don't go to the doctor or hospital at all if we can't afford the co-pay.

Health care in the U.S.A. is expensive and crappy.

The U.S.A. is a land of absurdly expensive and frequently inappropriate healthcare.

Anybody in other nations promoting a health care system more like ours is a crook.

[Change has come]

6. This is the exact argument my right wing boss keeps making regarding single payer.

I believe he is caucusing for Cruz this evening.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. In the beginning there will be longer waits

It's just a function of supply and demand, but it will get better with time.

When we were in the military, wait times for seeing a pediatrician were awful because there were tons of kids who could see the doctor for free and not that many doctors in comparison. We used what was at that time CHAMPUS and paid the co-pay out of pocket so that our daughters could see a doctor quickly when they were sick.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have access for everyone via single payer, we just need to understand that we will wait longer, at least in the beginning.

[moondust]

10. Tell him

with his bloated salary he can afford to fly someplace run by hustlers where shorter waiting times are for sale to the highest bidder.

[Jim Beard]

8. The reason Sweden has its problem is they allowed to many people

to immigrate and gave them all the health needs but they were not paying back into the system. You can not handle MASSIVE immigration and still maintain you social programs. I really wish some on this boarde would read about other places. Sweden did this years before the current crisis.

Please our health care problems will not be fixed with too many draining the system

From the Guardian....

The Guardian view on Sweden and immigration: breaking point

[burrowowl]

11. K&R!!!!!!

Will explore!