Health Care

I'll move the topic from tabloid-friendly royalty babies to something a bit more substantive. :) Susanne sent me this email:

Denmark was just named the "Happiest Country on Earth"!

Was watching a morning news show ABC's Good Morning America and they interviewed some happy person who was in charge of the survey to find the happiest country. She said that Denmark is the happiest country because the people have such low expectations of everything. Said don't get her wrong, they aren't pessimistic. To the Danes pleasure in life is a gift. They are a satisfied people.
They are modest.

Showed the crown prince and his family and various places in Copenhagen. Interviewed a Dane who had a broken leg and was unable to go to work. He was happy because he knew that he would be taken care of by the government and its good health care system and that he could go to where ever and get the cash that he would need because he couldn't work. As an aside, the interview did mention how
much the Danes have to pay in taxes for health care.

Find the video here: www.ABCNews.com/GMA

I was just in that park they filmed in yesterday. I saw some people filming, but it wasn't the ABC people. (Danish TV I think)

Denmark has won those surveys before about being the happiest people.

As far as health care, it is taxed and run by the county. There used to be 13 of these in Denmark, but this year (or maybe last year) they restructured this to 5. So, about a million people in each county. Health care is about 75% of the county's spending. You can choose which hospital/clinic you go to, and the government publishes "average wait" for each hospital. Danes don't just pay into a giant national pot, but to a more local level.

Different areas in Denmark might be slightly different in what they offer. Our history professor said his daughter in Copenhagen got "top of the line" braces for the 7 years she had to wear them. In western Denmark, they might cover braces but not the leading edge expensive variety. Overall the quality of Danish public hospitals and health care is very good.

Denmark also has a couple private hospitals. They always have some private business competing against the public entities, because then you can tell if the public entities are less efficient than a private company would be. My politics professor says that if the public entities aren't competitive, then you can just sell them and everyone is better off. So to keep the public services, they have to be competitive. The hospitals also compete across the county borders, since people have a free choice which hospital to go to.

Denmark does the same with buses, trains, schools, etc. There is a large national rail services, but also a few private companies that run some routes.


Denmark pays $2,743 per capita for health care (2003). US payed $5,711 per person in 2003. Canada spent $2,998 a person . So overall we really pay twice as much for our health care, and still have tens of millions of people who can't afford it and don't have any. Maybe the higher taxes aren't too bad. :)