Though Denmark and the United States are facing similar challenges — namely an aging population and costly new medical techniques — the two nations have "different points of departure," said Danish Minister of Interior and Health Bertel Haarder at a lecture Tuesday.
Haarder explained the benefits of European health care systems to an overflowing crowd in the Joukowsky Forum at the Watson Institute for International Studies. Though Denmark provides universal health care and the U.S. does not, the U.S. spends a much greater percentage of its gross domestic product on health care. This disparity is largely due to money spent on insurance companies and the possibility of "some element of overtreatment," Haarder said, citing the high rate of inpatient surgeries in the U.S.
The minister said all European countries have universal health care, based either on the Scandinavian tax-based model or the "German Bismarck" model of compulsory insurance. With the new implementation of health care reform, the U.S. is "moving a little bit to the German Bismarck model," he said. But from the European perspective, "it's puzzling that the reform did not go further because the need seemed to be evident," Haarder added.
Haarder also addressed the common assertion in the U.S. that the Danish health care system is "only one step away from communism" by noting that many Danes are reluctant to allow too much political influence on their private lives. Being liberal in Denmark means supporting free choice, Haarder said. Though Danes are obligated to go through specified general practitioners as "gatekeepers to the rest of the health sector," there is an element of choice in that citizens choose their general practitioners themselves and can change them once every year, he said.
Haarder acknowledged that his country's system is far from perfect and that certain social behaviors have led to Denmark's below-average life expectancy in Europe.
"The main reason is that the Danes smoke too much, and particularly, the young Danes drink too much," he said.
Throughout his speech, Haarder stressed the importance of equality in health care and other areas of governance. The principle that any service available to one should be equally available to all is "one of the fundamentals of Danish politics," he said.
"The Europeans are way ahead of us" in terms of health care, said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing in his introduction for Haarder. Wing noted that he favors the recent U.S. reform but does not think it will be adequate to bridge the gap with European countries.
Among those who turned out for the lecture was Professor-at-Large and former Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi. During the question-and-answer session, Prodi drew on his experience in Italy to elaborate on Haarder's points concerning the possibility of primary care neglect in the European health care system.
After the lecture, Kristen Englund GS said the talk was "enlightening." Before hearing Haarder, she said she had seen Prodi speak and noticed there were "a lot of parallels" in their priorities.
