Volume 4, Number 1: April 2020 | Article
Countries all over the world have different approaches to answer to the healthcare needs of their citizens. Ideally, these approaches are meant to be customized for each country as no two countries are the same. Healthcare strategies are borrowed, adapted and redone. This article will look into Sweden’s national health care system.
Sweden is one of the few countries in the world that pays that highest taxes. Taxes vary from 30% to 60%, in which additional taxes may arise such as extra taxation for the rich (Wiles, 2020). There is a great trust in the taxation system as it repeatedly proves to many individuals the benefits that it provides for citizens and immigrants. Birth registration, child support, free education and free healthcare are all some of the benefits that the entire Swedish population can enjoy with the cost of the taxes that they pay. The Swedish taxation system is a theory that works in the Swedish society, but it cannot be taken for granted that this taxation system can work somewhere else in the world.
In for example USA, the health care system is provided by private health insurance combined with public health coverage (BBC, 2020). An average American citizen pays about 14% taxes which is a much lower tax rate than that of Sweden’s’ (Frankel, 2018). The tax rates can also vary from state to state (Tax Policy Centre, 2020).
Geographically speaking, USA’s land area is 22 times the size of Sweden’s, in terms of population, USA has 32 times more people than Sweden. Trying to implement Sweden’s taxation strategy would theoretically work as both are first world countries with similar modern outlooks. Although, in practice, USA has very different social problems of that of Sweden’s in which can cause the taxation strategy to fail. The bigger volume of demand of USA’s healthcare can also be a challenge for the taxation strategy and overwhelm the system. Hence, it is of great importance for every country to find a healthcare strategy that fits their paradigm in order to maximize utilization of healthcare for all its citizens.
Sources
https://www.fool.com/taxes/2018/04/22/how-much-does-the-average-american-pay-in-taxes.aspx
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-state-and-local-individual-income-taxes-work
Hi Feri,
After reading your article, I understand so many things in Sweden are free 😉
Never knew that their taxes are so tremendously high compared to other countries. Does this drive a wedge between the healthy and ‘not so healthy’ people since the very wealthy end up paying for health care used for, for example, immigrants. How does Sweden cope with this? Would love to have a bit more information on this topic since the article was a bit short. Would be interesting!