A government commission has proposed that, in future, counties be made responsible for reimbursing the entire cost of prescription medicine. It is highly unlikely, however, that counties will agree to pay for medicine prescribed by doctors who are not in the public system. This will make the cost burden too heavy for most patients of private practitioners. Private sector involvement in health care delivery will certainly decrease in the coming years, as will patient choice. 1.Choices for the middle class in the towns have diminished since the 1950s.
Patients have little consumer choice.
2.Productivity in hospitals has fallen sharply since the 1970s, when doctors began receiving fixed salaries and not a fee per patient. 3.Productivity in hospitals has increased recently only as a result of diminishing financial resources. The productivity of district doctors can be extremely low-it is not unusual for a doctor to treat an average of only six to 12 patients a day. 4.Long-term care reform has increased the number of available beds, but the quality of care for elderly patients is not satisfactory. 6.When Sweden was a rich country in the 1970s, there were few restrictions on the introduction of new medical methods, new pharmaceuticals, etc.