Towards Equality? Rural Health and Health Legislation in Norway, 1860–1912

Abstract

State responsibility for the vital health services today offers the people of Norway fairly equal access to health services, with public health policies based upon the same principles. This state of affairs is often linked with the post-war 'social-democratic order', although its history can be traced back at least to the early twentieth century. There was no mid-nineteenth century common national health policy nor equal access to health care for urban and rural populations, but these featured as political aims and eventually, albeit slowly and to varying degrees, as social realities. This article deals with the rationale behind such developments, notably the national improvement in access to health services in rural districts and the emergence of a centrally shaped public health policy. The resulting impact upon the health of the population is not our main focus, although the new policies did affect the majority of the population. In 1865 only 20% of people lived in cities, towns or what were defined as densely populated districts, compared with approximately 38% in 1910. Not until the 1940s did roughly one-half of the population live in urban surroundings, even when urban space was defined as 'places having at least 200 inhabitants' and with no more than 50 metres between the houses. 1