Denmark
Social Welfare and Public Health in Scandinavia: Denmark's Example
June 15-22, 2008
Itinerary
This 8-day seminar begins and ends in Copenhagen and will include visits to Århus as well as Malmö and Lund in Sweden.
Seminar Fee
CIEE Member: $3,400 Non-Member: $3,600
Academic Content (please note this is tentative and subject to change)
Lectures
- Introduction to the Historical, Social, Economic and Political Background of the Scandinavian Social Welfare Model
- “From Cradle to Grave” Welfare State Benefits
- Social Welfare State in Crisis? An Aging Population, Rising Health Care Costs, Immigration, etc.
- Stakeholders in Health Care, and Reform and Change in Scandinavian Health Care Policy
- Introduction to Scandinavian Public and Private Health Care with a Health Economic Perspective
- Preventive and Curative Health Care as Seen from Sociological, Organizational, and Economic Perspectives
- Emerging Biomedical and Medico Technologies: Understanding How They Might Change the Future of Health Care
- Challenges and Opportunities that Lie within Biomedical Science and Health Care Technologies
Co-curricular Site Visits & Field Trips
- Denmark’s National University Hospital
- Novo Nordisk & other pharmaceutical companies
- Visit to companies in the Medicon Valley region (Copenhagen as well as Malmö and Lund in Sweden), one of the strongest bioregions in Europe comprising a dense cluster of universities, hospitals and more than 300 life science companies (pharmaceuticals, biotech and medtech)
- Health Organizations and NGOs
- Canal sight-seeing excursion
- Visit to Rosenborg Castle
- Louisiana Modern Art Museum
- Tivoli Gardens Amusement Park
- Trip to Århus (second largest city in DK) to visit Centre for Pervasive Healthcare and Skejby Hospital
Rationale
Denmark is an efficient and lavish welfare state with a globally competitive economy, and low unemployment. Take a critical look at Denmark’s experience with its comprehensive public health care policies and social welfare system and compare with the experience of other Scandinavian nations.
Scandinavian countries have all developed social welfare states where the population pays some of the highest taxes in the world, but receive generous free or heavily subsidized benefits including health care, education, maternity leave, childcare, unemployment benefits, etc that are provided to all citizens. The Scandinavian welfare model acts within a controlled capitalist market economy in which inequalities in income distribution and the concentration of wealth and power are allowed less free play. In political terms, there is in all the Scandinavian countries a parliamentary democracy with close relations between the organizations representing the interests of both employers and employees and the political system.
Due to their common social and cultural features and close proximity to each other, the Scandinavian countries have applied somewhat similar approaches to health care. The vast majority of health services are free of charge for the users. In Denmark, 85% of health care costs are financed through taxes. The total public and private health care expenditure corresponds to roughly 6% of the gross national product (GNP).
Health Care in the Western world faces severe challenges in the years to come, both with regard to economy, structure and technology. The expenses to public health care are exploding with an increasing elderly population. At the same time a vast amount of scientific biomedical achievements and new technologies have emerged that enables us to prevent and to cure more diseases in the future. But this comes at a very high price, forcing choices about how to prioritize the health care activities and finding sources of funding. Denmark is no. 1 in the world in terms of biotech patents and no. 2 in Europe on the Best Performance Index of Biotechnology Innovation Scoreboard of the European Commission, and has the 3rd largest commercial drug development pipeline in Europe in absolute numbers.
Host Institution
DIS, Danish Institute for Study Abroad is a Danish educational institution established in 1959 offering high-quality study abroad programs. Courses are taught in English by Danish faculty in Copenhagen for university students in their third or fourth year of study. DIS is non-profit and affiliated with the University of Copenhagen, recognized and subsidized by the Danish government and governed by an external board of directors appointed by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
Seminar Leadership
Dr. Anette Birck holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Immunology from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen and a MBA in Technology, Market and Organization from the Copenhagen Business School. Prior to joining DIS in 2007, Dr. Birck served as a Senior Advisor at the Medicon Valley Academy in Copenhagen for 8 years. She has also been a research fellow at the Danish Cancer Society and Denmark’s National University Hospital.
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