Broman Scholar John Lapidus researches equal access to healthcare and parallel healthcare systems
The privatization of Swedish healthcare has gained new momentum—not only through increased private provision, but also via a growing market for private health insurance. More than 800,000 Swedes have such an insurance, creating parallel healthcare systems and challenging the principle of equal access to care. A new research project maps the complex interplay between healthcare providers and insurance companies—and places the development in a European context.
John Lapidus, who is a researcher in Economic History and works at the Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law, at the University AvÐÔ°®, has been appointed Broman Scholar 2025. The Scholarship is given by the Broman Foundation for Research and Entrepreneurship and concerns research with a main focus on Entrepreneurship. The recipients receive SEK 352,800 each for their respective project. John Lapidus’ scholarship will go towards his research project "Private sector involvement in healthcare: a comprehensive mapping and analysis of providers and insurance companies".
Privatization and funding of healthcare
In several European countries, public healthcare systems are under severe pressure, while the provision and funding of healthcare is gradually being privatized. The same applies to Sweden, where privatization of provision has meant that 46 per cent of all healthcare centres are now privately run. At the same time, on the funding side, the growth of private healthcare insurance is accelerating within the framework of the parallel healthcare system that has been called the hidden welfare state. This means that more than 800,000 people today take out private healthcare insurance.
One of the driving forces behind this rapid development is the mutual interplay between private provision and private funding or, more specifically, all the private healthcare providers who are currently signing contracts with insurance companies in the new Swedish healthcare market. Many of these private healthcare providers are also signing contracts with the regions, which is why two different patient entrances are being created for a number of clinics around the country. This is something that can be said to challenge the provisions of the Healthcare Act on care according to need and care on equal terms for all citizens.
Mapping of the collaboration between healthcare providers and insurance companies
Today, there are well over 1,000 private healthcare providers, at different levels of care and in all parts of the country, who sign healthcare agreements with both insurance companies and the regions. But even though increased knowledge about this has often been requested, we do not know exactly who these healthcare providers are and what these agreements actually look like.
The project therefore aims to, via data ordered from Statistics Sweden's business register, conduct a comprehensive survey of who all these healthcare providers are and how they collaborate with insurance companies to offer priority to people with private healthcare insurance. The project also aims to analyze what this process means in a larger welfare state context, and in what respects the Swedish development is similar to or different from that in other European countries.