Patient Power

First private pharmacy since 1971 opened in Sweden

Some free-market health reform, in Sweden. From AFP:

Swedish Health and Social Affairs minister Goeran Haegglund inaugurated the country’s first private pharmacy since 1971 in front of reporters and a small crowd in Stockholm on Sunday.

“After hard work for a long time, we are now ready to open the first pharmacy in Sweden which is privately owned since 1971,” he said.

The state-owned Apoteket chain of pharmacies was until Sunday the sole provider of prescription medication in Sweden, and was until November 2009 also the only provider of non-prescription drugs such as headache tablets or other over-the-counter products.

Read the whole article here.

• No more speciality hospitals?
• Obama care: dissecting the President’s claims
• How insurance companies can gain credibility
• Government health care cost overruns
• Obama: “Public health plan” would “keep insurance companies honest”