Danish Welfare

Looks like I'll have my first personal experience with the Danish welfare system tomorrow, most likely. I almost certainly have a sinus infection -- my host mother's about ready to take me to a hospital just so I can have medicine immediately, but this is definitely not a medical emergency, it can wait until I can get an appointment with my state-assigned doctor tomorrow.

So, what's all this about a welfare state, you may ask? We had a discussion about it in my Danish class on Friday; how's that for apt timing?

Well basically, just about all medical care is free... well, not quite free. Because taxes are sky high. My politics professor put it this way, "Everybody gives, and everybody gets." When I got here, I had to register for a CPR card/number, basically a Social Security card/number. At the same time I was assigned a doctor near my home, actually the same doctor my host family has. Also according to my politics professor, "You can't exist in Denmark without a CPR number."

And then, if you need to go the doctor, you call in the morning and make and appointment, go, the prescribe you something, you go the the chemist and pick it up. All without being charged. Hospital and emergency care is also covered, I think people may pay on their own for more specialized things -- for example, I think past a certain age dental care isn't covered, and my host mother says a lot of people don't go to the dentist for that reason, and people have to pay part of the cost for glasses or contacts.

Also, in regards to unemployment -- you definitely still can collect money when you are unemployed, and something extra about Denmark: the government has a responsibility to try and help you find another job. We all boggled at this in class, and our teacher boggled at the facts we were telling her about Social Security and unemployment in the US.

We also discussed how this would never work in the United States. Part of the reason is was successfully enacted in the 60s and 70s is due to the fact that, at the time, there were still a very low number of immigrants and the vast majority of the population in Denmark were ethnic Danes. The population of the country was so homogeneous (and so small in comparison to the US and other countries, as it still is) and people were all sort of raised the same way and of the same mindset that the policies could be successfully enacted. Part of the problem in Denmark today is the resistance to immigration and how that's affecting the welfare system. The US is just too large of a country for one thing, too diverse, and people have a mentality that is more "look out for myself" than "make sure the whole country's doing well." People would balk at the high taxes and say, "Why am I paying for all these other people to get medical care, etc.?" It's nice ideal, but, sadly, ain't gonna happen.

On a completely unrelated note, here are a couple of interesting stories I think you should take a look at: Facebook Won't Let You Remove Dead Relative's Page, Per "Policy" and the update where Facebook gives in and says it was a misunderstanding. The second post there raises an interesting question, though: what happens to a person's online/virtual life after they die?