State and Insurance: The Long-Term Trends in Danish Health Policy from 1672 to 1973

Abstract

lthough health policy is only one part of welfare policy, it is a very distinguishing component of the Danish welfare system, with its massive state involvement: the state provides tax-financed, free medical care, free treatment in hospitals and sickness benefits for all permanent residents. Nearly all hospitals in Denmark are owned and run by the public, leaving only a minimal market for private hospitals and other forms of private medical care paid for by individual patients. In short, Danish health policy is characterised, as Esping-Andersen has described the Scandinavian welfare-state regime as a whole, by universalism and decommodification: the whole population receives services from the state, and the health services are not regulated by the market as commodities. A