Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by rurban 2285 days ago
No, Sweden was considered a country with a good healthcare system under the former socialist governments. But now that the capitalists are ruling Sweden and Denmark, the ship turned towards the US and UK systems. With its known problems.

Their healthcare system is now the 2nd worst in the EU. Social problems are rising right and left.
4 comments
capableweb 2284 days ago
> Their healthcare system is now the 2nd worst in the EU

WHAT? Now I haven't been to every European country, probably around 30% of them, would be my guess. But literally the country with the best healthcare system of them all, that I've visited a hospital in, have been Sweden.

You got any numbers to backup this claim? Spain, Italy and Greece clearly have a worse healthcare system, and those are just three examples I can think of quickly. Surely lots of countries in eastern europe has it worse than Sweden.

One source showing the opposite of what you're saying:

> Sweden is ranked third by the Commonwealth Fund, with a high proportion of doctors, above-average healthcare spending, and relatively low prescriptions of drugs.

From https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/09/which-countr... which is using Commonwealth Fund as it's source.

link
eng_monkey 2284 days ago
> Spain, Italy and Greece clearly have a worse healthcare system, and those are just three examples I can think of quickly. Surely lots of countries in eastern europe has it worse than Sweden.

Spain has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, usually ranked by the WHO within the top 10 while Sweden's was within top 30.

link
capableweb 2284 days ago
Can we please start adding sources to our statements? I guess you're going by this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization_rank...

Both Spain and Sweden seems to be about equal if you average the rankings in that list. So surely if Spain has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, Sweden is pretty equal, then Sweden is nowhere near being the "2nd worst in the EU" when it comes to healthcare.

link
gbrindisi 2284 days ago
Data in there is a bit old but... no need to average, just sort by overall performance.
link
capableweb 2284 days ago
Since I wasn't the one making the original claim, I could only try my best to find the matching source, this is as close as I could get. Sorry about that.
link
gbrindisi 2284 days ago
> Spain, Italy and Greece clearly have a worse healthcare system, and those are just three examples I can think of quickly.

I am Italian and I live in Sweden. I am happy my family is in Italy right now.

link
rurban 2284 days ago
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/best-healthcare-... per capita.

Behind is only Germany, Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, Poland. Ok, last time I've looked they were 2nd worst, now 6th.

Italy and Spain do have much better systems, by far. World Top 5. Even Greece is much better.

link
capableweb 2284 days ago
Thanks for providing the source. 6th sounds more reasonable indeed.
link
mcv 2284 days ago
> "the ship turned towards the US and UK systems"

But which one? The US and the UK healthcare systems are polar opposites. US is entirely privatised with many gaps in coverage, and it's the most expensive healthcare system in the world. The UK (despite its general conservativeness) has an entirely socialised system that's the cheapest in Europe.

link
kmlx 2284 days ago
> But now that the capitalists are ruling Sweden and Denmark, the ship turned towards the US and UK systems. With its known problems.

the UK system is public, one of the best in the world. the US system is private and one of the best in the world.

> Their healthcare system is now the 2nd worst in the EU.

you haven't been around the EU a lot right? i come from a 3rd world EU country and I can assure you Sweden is in the top EU countries.

link
rjsw 2284 days ago
The UK system has been starved of funding for the last 10 years.
link
kmlx 2284 days ago
Doesn't matter how starved the systems are. They're still top notch compared to most of the rest of the world. I know it's hard to see and understand this until you end up in one of the many countries where the health system is in reality non-existent, or worse, incompetent.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/best-healthcare-...

link
ChuckNorris89 2284 days ago
All health systems in Europe are starved of funding. I live I Austria and every year the health insurance covers less and less requireing you to fork more non life threatening stuff out of your own pocket. This is due in some part to an ever increasing aging population needing expensive care and lower tax income due to slower economic growth.
link
robk 2284 days ago
Social problems are linked to immigration no?
link