The Influence of the Danish Welfare State in Treating Everyday Illness

By: Trishla Jain

September 30, 2013

At my orientation session in the Office of International Programs at Georgetown in preparation for my four month stay in Copenhagen, one of the first things that I was advised to do was to bring a large enough supply of any medication, prescription or over-the-counter, that I may need to last for the duration of my trip. As the oldest child of a mother with a verifiable Mary Poppins bag, I never go anywhere unprepared, so I had always planned to bring general medication with me to Copenhagen. I figured our advisor just wanted us to be prepared—after all, no one wants to get caught in a foreign country having run out of their prescription medication.

And then, three weeks into my stay in Copenhagen, I woke up one morning unable to breathe out of my nose. I believe it was some combination of my host mom’s recent illness and Copenhagen’s frigid mornings that become hot, sunny afternoons and then turn back into chilly nights that weakened my defenses and allowed illness to infiltrate my body. However, there were still classes to attend and I sluggishly rolled out of my bed, grabbing an entire box of tissues from my room before I set off to central Copenhagen. Shuffling into class, I sat down next to one of my friends and she asked if I had just come down with the cold. As I nodded my head up and down, I mentioned that I had forgotten to bring a decongestant with me and was hoping to stop by the pharmacy located down the block to see if they had anything I could use. Grimacing, she told me not to bother as she had been sick the week before and could not find anything at the pharmacy that worked as well as over-the-counter medication from the United States.

I resigned myself to waiting out this cold, but as I sat down in my Danish Language and Culture class later that afternoon, my professor noticed my box of tissues and inquired about my illness. As I relayed the day’s unfortunate series of events, including my futile attempts at finding a suitable medication, she laughed as she explained that my search for medication was a lost cause. Danes, she explained, do not utilize medication in the same way that people in the United States do. I started to explain that I understood that the impact that the Danish welfare state has on health care in the society, after all that is the reason that I chose to study in Denmark in the first place, but she stopped me midway through my statement.

The welfare state influences how Danes deal with minor illness like colds, sore throats and headaches, she explained, but not for the reasons I was about to describe, such as the free visits to their general practitioners, which are a result of the revenue raised from the nearly 50% tax imposed on all Danes by their government. Danes, she said, will advise you to stay in bed with a box of tissues and a steaming hot cup of tea when you’re sick, instead of giving you a handful of pills and a glass of water to swallow them with, because they know if they have to take a sick day or two, their bosses and professors will understand since nothing is so important that it cannot do without them for a day. Unlike Americans, Danes are not focused on being irreplaceable, but simply on doing the best that they can, a sentiment that my host dad later echoed in a conversation that we had the next week. Danes, I learned, will take the time they need to recover, because if their boss wants to fire them, they know that the welfare state will still be there for them to help them through to the other side, providing unemployment benefits and job training, if necessary, until they have secured a new position. Flashing back to memories of watching my classmates struggle to attend classes and work at internships while sick, not only prolonging their individual recovery time but also putting others at risk of catching their illness, it was refreshing to see a worldview that simultaneously emphasized personal well-being and the true fact that the world will keep on turning regardless of if we miss work or class one day.

When I finally made it back to my host family’s house at the end of the day, my host mom took one look at me, immediately realized I was sick, told me to go up to my room and lie down and that she would bring me a cup of tea. She told me to rest and to come downstairs for more tea if I wanted it, and that I would feel better in no time. Not once during any exchange we had while I was sick did she offer me medication, which I no longer regarded as odd. For the next four months, Denmark and its extensive welfare state are my adopted home, so much so that I am currently in the process of applying for an official resident permit card and CPR number, which will allow me to have access to all of the health care services provided by the Danish state. Now, however, I have realized that the state’s influence extends far beyond the extensive services it provides, giving Danes, and now me, a comprehensive sense of peace of mind that allows us to fight illness not at our desks, but curled up on the couch with a cup of Earl Grey.

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