Health and medical care policy and dental care

Health and medical care is a central part of welfare provision.

Objectives of health and medical care policy

The Swedish government has the following objectives of Health and medical care policy: People must be offered good quality health care that is adapted to needs, accessible and effective.

Scope of policy

The health and medical care policy area covers agencies and government action relating to health care whose purpose is to promote and secure good health and equal access to care for the entire population. The policy area covers the following forms of financial support: pharmaceutical benefits, dental care grants, international health care, grants for health and medical care and grants for psychiatric services. The county councils and municipalities have the primary responsibility for planning, funding and running health care.

Direction of policy

The Government's ambition is to create the best conceivable conditions for good patient-centred health care. Health care must be characterised by a high level of accessibility, good quality and freedom of choice for the individual. These principles are reflected in the Government's strategy on good health care. The strategy points out the importance of interplay between measures for open comparisons, advanced benefit systems, an effective supply of information and a diversity of care providers through such means as employee takeovers.

The work on developing the psychiatric services is moving forward through such measures as knowledge development, better psycho-social skills and quality in primary care, as well as a review of quality registers in psychiatric services.

The Government plans to implement a dental care reform in 2008 aimed at strengthening the individual's protection against high costs for dental care.

In the field of medical ethics, the Government's work aims at dealing with the issues in a responsible manner so that fundamental values are not jeopardised.

Agencies and other bodies

The following government agencies belong to this policy area: the Medical Responsibility Board (MRB), the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU), the National Board of Health and Welfare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Board and the Medical Products Agency (MPA). The state-owned National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB) also belongs to the policy area.