Healthcare In Crisis: Denmark Hospital Delays Spur Quadrupling of Insurance

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Denmark Hospital Delays Spur Quadrupling of Insurance

Carlsberg A/S, Lego A/S and Novo Nordisk A/S are offering private health insurance for workers tired of waiting for publicly funded treatment.

More than 600,000 of Denmark's 5.5 million residents now have insurance that enables them to skip months-long waiting lists at public hospitals for non-emergency medical care. The average time Danes were forced to wait for a range of 18 operations was 21 weeks in 2006 because of a lack of specialists.

As the U.S. tries to move away from a reliance on employer- provided health insurance so the uninsured can get care, countries like Denmark with a long history of government-funded medical systems are moving toward the U.S. model. The number of privately insured Danes quadrupled since 2002, when the government responded to delays in publicly provided treatment by giving companies a tax break on premiums and making the policies tax-free for workers.

``It will undermine the public health-care system and all of us in the end will end up paying for it,'' Per Clausen, a legislator who is the main spokesman on health care for The Red- Green Alliance, one of Denmark's Socialist parties. ``Insurance shouldn't be necessary to get good, fast treatment and it shouldn't be financed with taxes.''

Offering Coverage

A 2007 survey by the Confederation of Danish Industries showed that three-fourths of members offered coverage to at least some employees. Private insurance may be increasing because companies use it to entice workers as Denmark's unemployment rate remains near the lowest level in three decades.

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Statistics Collection

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