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HEALTH

Swedish government proposes scrapping free dental care for young adults

Free dental care for 19-23 year olds will be scrapped and dental care for over-67s will be made cheaper from next year under a new proposal, the government and the Sweden Democrats announced in a press conference on Friday.

Published: 6 September 2024 13:00 CEST
Swedish government proposes scrapping free dental care for young adults
Anna Tenje, Minister for Older People and Social Security (left), Jakob Forssmed, Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health (centre) and Linda Lindberg, Sweden Democrat parliamentary group leader (right). Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Social Affairs and Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed described the changes as the “largest reform of dental care in over 20 years”.

Under the new rules, the government would introduce a system of high-cost protection for dental care more similar to that seen for other types of healthcare, which would only apply to those aged 67 and above. It would be financed by scrapping free dental care for young adults, which currently covers those aged 19-23.

It is expected to cost the state around 3.4 billion kronor a year from 2026.

“Good dental health and well-functioning support from family is important for health and for the possibility of a social life as part of a community with other people,” added Anna Tenje, Minister for Older Poeple and Social Security. “We’re taking well-considered and targeted measures to improve care of the elderly and their health.”

“Dental care will be more accessible to those with the greatest need.”

There is currently an ongoing inquiry looking into how the dental care reform would work in practice, with a set end date of October 31st this year. However, the government is already setting aside 3.4 billion kronor in the next budget proposal in order to be able to implement the reform by January 1st next year.

EXPLAINED: How much does dental care cost in Sweden?

Linda Lindberg, the Sweden Democrats’ group leader in parliament, said at the press conference that the Sweden Democrats aim to extend the system of high-cost protection in dental care to the rest of the population in the future.

“We’re taking the first step here with the elderly,” she added.

There is currently a system of high cost protection in place for dental care, where patients can reclaim 50 percent of any dental costs over 3,000 kronor per year, rising to 85 percent for any costs above 15,000 kronor. 

For example, let’s say you have a dental bill of 20,000 kronor for treatment within the same 12 month period, and your dentist charges the national reference price.

You pay the first 3,000 kronor yourself. You pay 50 percent of everything between 3,000 and 15,000 kronor (so, 6,000 kronor), then 15 percent of the last 5,000 kronor (so, 750 kronor), as that’s over the 15,000 kronor cap.

This means that, on a 20,000 kronor bill, you end up paying 9,750 kronor (3,000 + 6,000 + 750), meaning Försäkringskassan covered 10,250 kronor of your 20,000 kronor bill.

High cost protection for other healthcare, on the other hand, works slightly differently, with patient fees capped at 1,400 kronor in any 12-month period.

The budget proposal, negotiated by the government and the Sweden Democrats, will be presented in its entirety on September 19th.

Member comments

  1. Dental care is healthcare and should be treated as such. Everyone deserves access to dental care more than anyone needs a tax cut, the other budget proposal last week. This right-wing government is undermining the health of the country.

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POLITICS IN SWEDEN

Why a lottery scandal could change the funding balance in Swedish politics

A Swedish government inquiry this spring stopped short of backing a ban on lotteries to fund political parties. Could a report about unscrupulous selling techniques for the Social Democrats' lottery provide cover for government to push ahead with it anyway?

Published: 16 September 2024 14:32 CEST
Why a lottery scandal could change the funding balance in Swedish politics

Last week, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reported that Effective Communications, a telesales company based in Barcelona, had been using heavy-handed techniques to sell the Social Democrats’ Kombispel lottery, for which people subscribe monthly for the chance to win prizes every Friday. 

According to six former workers at the agency, they had to cold call elderly people, who were not properly informed about the fact that they were signing up to a subscription rather than a one-off purchase, at the same time as sales people claimed misleadingly that there was a campaign afoot giving them cheaper tickets, or that they could get tickets at a discounted price. 

The revelations are extremely welcome for Sweden’s government and their support party the Sweden Democrats, reopening the way for a full ban at exactly the point when the government is drawing up its proposal for new lottery legislation.

But they are a disaster for the opposition Social Democrats, which risks losing as much as half of its party funding. 

The Social Democrats’ party secretary Tobias Baudin told DN that he was “furious” when he read the accounts of the sales methods used according to the report, and the party has now sacked the board of the Kombispel lottery, and suspended the use of telemarketing agencies to sell its lotteries.  

“In the future we’re not going to need to investigate this sort of call centre company, because this is never going to happen again,” Baudin said. 

“We expect that Kombispel gets to the bottom of this and finds out if this information is correct,” echoed the party’s group leader, Lena Hallengren. “Of course the task given to them has never been to sell lottery tickets whatever the cost.” 

Shutting off the tap

When the government launched its inquiry into tightening the rules around the lotteries run by political parties, its far-right support party, the Sweden Democrats, were unusually honest about what they were trying to do.  

“We need to shut off the money tap which finances Social Democracy, because they have rigged the whole system,” said Tobias Andersson, the Sweden Democrat MP who chairs the parliament’s committee on industry and trade. “Next year, there will be less money on show at the Sossarnas [Social Democrats’] May Day procession.” 

Nothing in the current rules prevents other parties from running lotteries in the same way as the Social Democrats do, but no other party has had such success. The M-lotteriet lottery the Moderate Party launched in 2020 was an embarrassing failure, bringing in just 4.7 million kronor, a fraction of the 153 million pouring in from the Social Democrats’ Kombilotteriet, Femman och Glädjelotten lotteries combined. 

According to the Dagens Industri newspaper, lotteries brought in half of the Social Democrats’ income in 2021, so bringing in a ban would financially cripple Sweden’s biggest opposition party. 

Too far-reaching

Unfortunately for the government, though, the inquiry it launched in 2023 concluded in March that a ban would go too far, calling instead for increased transparency and tighter rules over selling tickets on credit. 

“In the judgement of the inquiry chair a total ban on party political lotteries would be a much too far-reaching measure,” the chair Gunnar Larsson, a former director-general of Sweden’s Consumer Agency, concluded on in the report on March 1st. 

The report was then put out for consultation, with the deadline for submissions on August 12th, since when the government has been drawing up a proposition which is expected to be sent to parliament before the end of the year. 

Even some high-profile Moderate Party figures have criticised the proposal for a ban, with Ulrica Schenström, a former top political aide to former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, denouncing the idea as undemocratic. 

“I usually hold back from making historical comparisons with periods dominated by authoritarian regime or with countries today like Poland, Hungary and Turkey. But what is being proposed brings to mind regimes which deliberately use government power to weaken and ultimately destroy their political opponents,” she wrote on Facebook last year.

Sven Otto Littorin, a former employment minister, also said that the attempt to use government power to weaken a political opponent was worrying. 

“It is easy to be blinded by the working methods and lack of morals of Kombilotto,” he wrote on Facebook. ” And some think it’s fun to slap S [the Social Democrats] in the face. But it is undeniably a real warning bell when government power is used for such purposes. That’s something one should really be above doing.” 

Ban back on the table 

The story in Dagens Nyheter could not have come at a more convenient time for the government. At exactly the point when it has to decide on whether to overrule the inquiry and push for a ban anyway, a story has broken that gives them justification for doing so.

On the same day that the story was published, Niklas Wykman, the financial markets minister who is responsible for the new law, confirmed that the revelations could reopen moves towards a ban. 

“This once again brings back the question of whether there should be a ban,” he told TT. “The main approach on our side has been that there should be clearer regulations. That was also the approach of the inquiry chair. But this puts the question of a ban back on the table.” 

The Social Democrats have not yet given up the fight, though, with Hallengren reiterating on Thursday that a ban on party lotteries would represent “a threat to democracy”.  

The coming months will show whether the government is ready to ignore accusations that it is using undemocratic measures and take a measure that, while it will doubtless save some people from gambling debt and unscrupulous salespeople, will also throttle the funding of their political opponents. 

Politics in Sweden is The Local’s weekly analysis, guide or look ahead to what’s coming up in Swedish politics. Update your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your inbox. 

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