Market Reforms in Swedish Health Care: Normative Reorientation and Welfare State Sustainability

Although the impact of market reforms in Swedish health care stands out as not very far-reaching in an international comparison, it represents a route away from the features and basic values normally associated with the Swedish or Scandinavian model. Summarizing the development over the last decades, we may identify signs of sustainability as well as change. Popular support for public provision and a robust institutional structure make far-reaching alterations of existing structures less feasible, although most visible changes this far-incremental though they may be-represent a change in which the normative foundations of the Swedish model are challenged.