418 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Disease Prevention in Socialized Medicine

Question: As a country’s medical system becomes more and more socialized, is there a concomitant drop or lessening of emphasis on preventive ser- vices offered?

Answer: No. Our experience here in Sweden has been quite the contrary. With more government responsibility for medical services, it has become pos- sible to incorporate more preventive measures into the system. It is also much more easy to ask the patient to come in for a health check-up when that patient knows the physician has no financial vested interest. The organization of large-scale diabetic and hypertensive out-patient services vital to the preven- tion of secondary complications has also benefitted from greater government participation in the country’s medical services.

Based on these observations, I would say that the more socialized the medical system, the more prevention-minded it becomes.

LARS WERK~

Faculty of Medicine University of Giiteborg

Sweden