 Swedish healthcare under pressureHealth Economics, 2005, vol. 14, issue S1, S237-S254 Abstract: Swedish healthcare, run by local governments at both the regional (county) and the municipal levels, has been under pressure during the last 15 years, following increased scrutiny of performance and demand for cost‐containment. Health‐care expenditures per capita and levels of resource inputs have grown, but more slowly than in other EU countries. At the same time, the number of elderly people has increased, as have options for medical treatment. In the late 1980s, several local governments referred to long waiting‐lists for elective treatment and anecdotal evidence of inefficiency and poor responsiveness when arguing for market‐oriented reforms. A purchaser–provider split followed, and so did changes in the payment systems for health‐care providers. According to the available evidence, these reforms yielded an increased volume of services in the short run; but traditional hierarchical management soon replaced the new incentives. Moreover, evidence suggests that changes introduced by the national government, and the deteriorating funding conditions together with a continued use of new medical technology, have had more far‐reaching effects on health‐care output and outcome than local‐government reforms. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Date: 2005 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:14:y:2005:i:s1:p:s237-s254 Access Statistics for this article Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.