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Swedes buy insurance to skip long health queues

One in ten Swedes now has private health insurance, often through their employers, with some recipients stating it makes business sense to be seen quickly rather than languish in national health care queues.

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."

The insurance plan guarantees that she can see a specialist within four working days, and get a time for surgery, if needed, within 15.

Gubbermint health care

I don't understand.

Who would want to pay for private insurance when the government will hold your hand and give it to you?

Isn't that what most upper income folks due in every country with single payer? Get private insurance and/or private docs so they don't have to wait for intolerably long periods for mediocre at best care with the rest of the masses?

BDKJMU wrote:Isn't that what most upper income folks due in every country with single payer? Get private insurance and/or private docs so they don't have to wait for intolerably long periods for mediocre at best care with the rest of the masses?

Unless you're in Canada. Last time I checked, it was illegal to seek medical care outside of the government system. Hildabeastcare was designed to work that way too.

I don't know about their system: But our system is rigged
This is why we shouldn't let insurance companies write and design our Healthcare System...

Chizzang wrote:I don't know about their system: But our system is rigged
This is why we shouldn't let insurance companies write and design our Healthcare System...

Sweden's system sounds pretty good. The takers have to wait in line but are still less of a drag than being uninsured and the wealthy can buy improved services.

Class warfare !

As Tina Fey once wrote about Obamacare, "Let me die in an emergency room with a treatable disease like an American."

I had to change my doctor...
Ive had the same doctor for 5 years / that made me grumpy

Chizzang wrote:I had to change my doctor...
Ive had the same doctor for 5 years / that made me grumpy

Losing your doc is so last week.

The impending employer mandate train wreck is the new hotness

CID1990 wrote:

Chizzang wrote:I had to change my doctor...
Ive had the same doctor for 5 years / that made me grumpy

Losing your doc is so last week.

The impending employer mandate train wreck is the new hotness

Actually I lose my doctor last week...

The true fail here is Baldy defending OUR system!

Cap'n Cat wrote:The true fail here is Baldy defending OUR system!

How did I defend "our system" when I didn't even mention "our system".

Cappy, you're starting out on the wrong foot today.

Baldy wrote:

Cap'n Cat wrote:The true fail here is Baldy defending OUR system!

How did I defend "our system" when I didn't even mention "our system".

Cappy, you're starting out on the wrong foot today.

And that differs from every other day how, exactly?

Baldy wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:Isn't that what most upper income folks due in every country with single payer? Get private insurance and/or private docs so they don't have to wait for intolerably long periods for mediocre at best care with the rest of the masses?

Unless you're in Canada. Last time I checked, it was illegal to seek medical care outside of the government system. Hildabeastcare was designed to work that way too.

Been years since my last visit to Canada. It was around '97 and '98 and of course a couple of years earlier we had our Clinton healthcare debate, so I ask 5 of the guys I was working with at dinner how the Canadian system worked. There incomes ranges from 60K to 250K in Canadian dollars. Each one said, when I need a doctor I drive to the US

OL FU wrote:

Baldy wrote: Unless you're in Canada. Last time I checked, it was illegal to seek medical care outside of the government system. Hildabeastcare was designed to work that way too.

Been years since my last visit to Canada. It was around '97 and '98 and of course a couple of years earlier we had our Clinton healthcare debate, so I ask 5 of the guys I was working with at dinner how the Canadian system worked. There incomes ranges from 60K to 250K in Canadian dollars. Each one said, when I need a doctor I drive to the US

Our family doctor moved to the U.S. from Canada about 10 years ago. He says there is one great thing about their system - he had a small practice and only had one receptionist and a nurse to help him. Here he needs about 4 people in the office just to push the paperwork. Other than that he says their system sucks. He talks about people intentionally getting into car accidents so they can move up the list for things like back surgery.

And if you go to Mayo Clinic it is full of Canadians.

We still spend signifantly more than both Sweden and Canada while trailing them in many key outcomes (17th out of 17 among the wealthiest nations).

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... st/267045/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... xpenditure_(PPP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)_per_capita

kalm wrote:We still spend signifantly more than both Sweden and Canada while trailing them in many key outcomes (17th out of 17 among the wealthiest nations).

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... st/267045/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... xpenditure_(PPP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)_per_capita

Right on time

The Atlantic article lists the US as being dismal in the following categories:

"The highest rate of death by violence, by a stunning margin
The highest rate of death by car accident, also dramatically so
The highest chance that a child will die before age 5
The second-highest rate of death by coronary heart disease
The second-highest rate of death by lung disease
The highest teen pregnancy rate
The highest rate of women dying due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth"

Most of these are linked to lifestyle and culture (yes we are fat and lazy)

But it has little to do with Canada or Sweden having better healthcare systems

Congratulations, Kalm... you graduated from simple non sequiturs to non sequiturs with links

CID1990 wrote:

kalm wrote:We still spend signifantly more than both Sweden and Canada while trailing them in many key outcomes (17th out of 17 among the wealthiest nations).

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... st/267045/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... xpenditure_(PPP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)_per_capita

Right on time

Thoughtful reply and right back at ya!

kalm wrote:

CID1990 wrote:
Right on time

Thoughtful reply and right back at ya!

See my edit.

CID1990 wrote:

kalm wrote:We still spend signifantly more than both Sweden and Canada while trailing them in many key outcomes (17th out of 17 among the wealthiest nations).

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... st/267045/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... xpenditure_(PPP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)_per_capita

Right on time

The Atlantic article lists the US as being dismal in the following categories:

"The highest rate of death by violence, by a stunning margin
The highest rate of death by car accident, also dramatically so
The highest chance that a child will die before age 5
The second-highest rate of death by coronary heart disease
The second-highest rate of death by lung disease
The highest teen pregnancy rate
The highest rate of women dying due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth"

Most of these are linked to lifestyle and culture (yes we are fat and lazy)

But it has little to do with Canada or Sweden having better healthcare systems

Congratulations, Kalm... you graduated from simple non sequiturs to non sequiturs with links

True, complicated systems are challenging to compare, and lifestyle plays a role for sure. Then again, lifestyle is also a part of healthcare. For example, preventative medicine like low dose bp and cholesterol meds in the 30's can help prevent heart desease later.

In any event you should have kept reading as the article addressed your points as well...in a less douchey manner.

Not that one factor is likely to be able to explain everything. The panelists identified a host of factors: More than other countries, our health care system is fragmented, unaffordable for many people, and short on primary care. Of the countries studied, we have the highest rate of children living in poverty. More of our communities are built around cars, which may discourage exercise.


As individuals, the study found, "Americans are less likely to smoke and may drink less heavily than their counterparts in peer countries, but they consume the most calories per capita, abuse more prescription and illicit drugs, are less likely to fasten seatbelts, have more traffic accidents involving alcohol, and own more firearms." Yet even fit, nonsmoking Americans have higher disease rates than those elsewhere, the report said.

kalm wrote:We still spend signifantly more than both Sweden and Canada while trailing them in many key outcomes (17th out of 17 among the wealthiest nations).

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... st/267045/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... xpenditure_(PPP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)_per_capita

What does people dying from violence and automobile accidents have to do with our health care system?

Anyway, from the opinion piece in The Atlantic:

In presenting their findings Wednesday, the authors seemed to be urging the U.S. to do some soul searching. Our culture "cherishes independence" and "wants to limit the intrusion of government in our personal lives," said Steven Woolf, director of the Center for Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University, the panel chairman. While those values serve us in some ways, he said, our resistance to regulation "may work against our ability to achieve optimal health outcomes."

The panelists' subtext: There's no turning a blind eye anymore, guys. We have to care.

Co-author Paula Braveman, who directs the Center on Social Disparities in Health at University of California, San Francisco, said the panel grappled with this question as it searched for explanations for our poor health: "Is it Americans' rugged individualism and the sense that the most important thing is the individual's freedom, and that's so much more important than doing what's right for society?"

Might our national M.O., in other words, be summed up as "Live free and die"?

Wow...just Wow

I also love how people like this mention infant mortality rates, which are for the most part a sham since every country measures it differently. The US is one of the very few countries who constitutes a "live birth" as any baby who shows any signs of life (heartbeat, muscle activity, gasping for breath) outside the womb. Most every other country has countless prequalifiers such a birth weight, gestation, length. In Russia for example, a baby born at 28 weeks, weighting under 1000 grams, and under 35 cm isn't counted as a live birth unless it lives for 7 days. If the baby dies before the 7th day it would be considered still born and wouldn't be counted against Russia's infant mortality rate.

Comparing infant mortality rates..........apples and oranges.

A mild, charming highlight of my day - watching Boldlie, Zerobraincells and BDICKHEAD gettin schooled by Kalm et al.

AZGrizFan wrote:

Baldy wrote:

How did I defend "our system" when I didn't even mention "our system".

Cappy, you're starting out on the wrong foot today.

And that differs from every other day how, exactly?

Any day that starts by cranking one out to the sounds of pigeons is a bad start.

D1B wrote:A mild, charming highlight of my day - watching Boldlie, Zerobraincells and BDICKHEAD gettin schooled by Kalm et al.

Sorry to make your Friday so horrible.