Burström Bo
Int J Health Serv. 2015;45(1):87-104. doi: 10.2190/HS.45.1.g.
The Swedish welfare state, once developed to create a new society based on social equality and universal rights, has taken on a partly new direction. Extensive choice reforms have been implemented in social services and an increasing proportion of tax-funded social services, including child day care, primary and secondary schools, health care, and care of the elderly, is provided by private entrepreneurs, although funded by taxes. Private equity firms have gained considerable profits from the welfare services. The changes have taken place over a 20-year period, but at an accelerated pace in the last decade. Sweden previously had very generous sickness and unemployment insurance, in terms of both duration and benefit levels, but is falling behind in terms of generosity, as indicated by increasing levels of relative poverty among those who depend on benefits and transfers. Increasing income inequality over the past 20 years further adds to increasing the gaps between population groups. In some respects, Sweden is becoming similar to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The article describes some of the changes that have occurred. However, there is still widespread popular support for the publicly provided welfare state services.
曾经旨在创建一个基于社会平等和普遍权利的新社会的瑞典福利国家，已呈现出部分新的发展方向。社会服务领域实施了广泛的选择改革，越来越多由税收资助的社会服务，包括儿童日托、中小学教育、医疗保健和老年人护理，由私人企业家提供，尽管资金来源于税收。私募股权公司从福利服务中获取了可观利润。这些变化历经20年，但在过去十年加速推进。瑞典此前在疾病和失业保险方面，无论是期限还是福利水平都非常慷慨，但如今在慷慨程度上正逐渐落后，依赖福利和转移支付人群中相对贫困水平的上升就表明了这一点。过去20年里收入不平等加剧，进一步加大了不同人群之间的差距。在某些方面，瑞典正变得与其他经济合作与发展组织国家相似。本文描述了已经发生的一些变化。然而，公众对由政府提供的福利国家服务仍普遍支持。
