Healthcare Reform - Norway's Healthcare

January 12, 2023

Jan 12, 2023

Good Day Healthcare Advocates

Every day we advocate for better healthcare for all of us is a good day. Thank you also to all of you advocates who have recently subscribed and to those who have asked for particular topics. Please send topics in the comment button below. Thank you.

Current State of Affairs - Universal Healthcare in Norway

Thank you to Healthcare For All Washington (https://www.healthcareforallwa.org/) for hosting yesterday’s virtual event that described the Norwegian Healthcare System. Their site above (under 2nd Wednesday Series), will have a link to the presentation shortly.

Norway’s system has many fundamental differences to the many systems we have in the US. Let’s review them. Here is a reference from the Commonwealth Fund.

Norway’s system began in 1909 and has continued to evolve. Everyone has healthcare. Norway’s system is free for those 16 and younger and for pregnant and nursing women. There is a copay for services capped yearly at about $225 US including prescriptions.. That’s the total out of pocket expense. Municipalities are responsible for primary care and the national government for specialty care and hospital services using state owned regional facilities. An interesting side note is that if you have a chronic illness in Norway, you can be excused from your medical copay. Very different from here where we see companies trying to exclude such patients from policies. About 10% of the population purchases supplemental plans to expand their coverage. Norway spends about 10.7% of their GDP on Healthcare - we spend 18.4% of GDP and don’t cover everyone.

Pretty much all medical services are covered including long term care. Dental is covered until 16 and for a number of other special adult cases, like chemotherapy patients whose teeth are at risk.

We often hear about high taxes in Europe but it is not that way there. Income tax is 22% and social security tax is 8% for employees. That is 30%. Here many of us pay 25% for Federal tax, 9% for State tax, 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare and then the cost of my health care policy - 5% if you make about 100,000 and are using an employer plan (otherwise it can be way more). So in the US we are looking at 46% to 50%. I think Norwegians got the better deal. Moreover it demonstrates that every Norwegian matters. So different from here where 8.5% of the population has no health insurance.

What is covered in their social network for the taxes they pay? Unemployment insurance, worker’s comp, healthcare, pensions (that you can live on), financial assistance for low income people, family/early childhood benefits, child care, financial assistance for children and parents, parental leave and more.

In 1990 the life expectancy in the US and Norway were about the same. Today Norway’s life expectancy is about 82 and the US is 78. The University of Washington has evaluated the effect of Universal Healthcare on a country’s population in their Global Burden of Disease study and found that Norway ranks 3rd best in the world while the US is at about 40. Norway’s system also ranked much better than the US with respect to # deaths/capita from treatable causes.

Another interesting feature is that medical malpractice insurance costs about $100/year in Norway. In the US it can cost $200K or more. The bulk of malpractice claim payments in the US is future medical care. That’s already covered under universal healthcare in Norway. The $100 goes towards investigations to determine if there are systemic improvements or personnel improvements needed to ensure better outcomes.

Summary: Norway’s system costs significantly less than the US, delivers higher quality care for the entire population with a higher life expectancy and quality of life. It does require managing care as a system instead of allowing the market to try and meet needs. The system is designed to meet the population’s needs not to generate profits.

The US needs to begin having the conversation about how we can build a system that cares for the health of our residents instead of the one we have now.

What You Can Do

I recommend that instead of contacting our legislators today, we examine countries with Universal Healthcare and see what we can learn. The Commonwealth Fund covers health care for most countries at this Link .

I also recommend reviewing The proposal for Universal Healthcare in the US at Physicians for a National Health Plan here. There are links on that page to their proposal and related presentations. It is a good organization to join (see bottom of their page)..