On Friday January 22 Kári Stefánsson, Iceland’s most famous scientist and the founder and CEO of DeCode Genetics, launched a petition demanding the government of Iceland increase funding for the health care system. Kári demands the government commit to spending at least 11% of GDP on health care. Currently Iceland spends 8.7% of its GDP on health care. Public expenditure on health care in Iceland is 7.1% of GDP.
Hopes to collect 100,000 signatures
Kári, who has criticized the government on several occasions for not spending nearly enough on health care, caused a stir in December when he threatened to mobilize 100,000 voters to pressure the government to increase health care funding. Kári argued the 2016 budget prioritized funerals over healthcare, as it increased funding for the Church while not meeting the needs of hospitals.
The petition Kári released on Friday is already the sixth largest in Icelandic history. The largest petition to date is a 2013 petition protesting plans to close the downtown Reykjavík airport. 69,637 people signed the petition. Kári has announced he will continue to collect signatures for the petition for ten weeks, at which time he will hand the petition over to the government, according to the local news site visir.is.
Public expenditure on health care is comparable to other Nordic countries
The Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, says he agrees with Kári that funding for health care must be increased, but that it is unwise to fix the funding to an arbitrary percentage of GDP. In an entry on his Facebook page Sigmundur argues there does not seem to be any direct link between health care spending as a percentage of GDP and prosperity, pointing out that the US spends more on health care than most other countries (17.1% of GDP) and that many developing countries spend more on health care than Iceland. “This is pretty simple, really. We must grow the economy and then spend more on health care and social insurance.”
The local news site visir.is notes that the figures Sigmundur Davíð quotes are total spending on health care, both public and private. Kári’s demand is that public spending be increase to 11% of GDP. This would put Iceland far ahead of the other Nordic countries. None of the Nordic countries spend more than 10% of GDP on public funding of health care. The share is highest in Sweden where public health expenditure is 9.2% of GDP, followed by Denmark where it is 8.8% and Norway with 7.6% and Finland at 6.5%. Currently public expenditure on health care is 7.1% of GDP in Iceland.
On Friday January 22 Kári Stefánsson, Iceland’s most famous scientist and the founder and CEO of DeCode Genetics, launched a petition demanding the government of Iceland increase funding for the health care system. Kári demands the government commit to spending at least 11% of GDP on health care. Currently Iceland spends 8.7% of its GDP on health care. Public expenditure on health care in Iceland is 7.1% of GDP.
Hopes to collect 100,000 signatures
Kári, who has criticized the government on several occasions for not spending nearly enough on health care, caused a stir in December when he threatened to mobilize 100,000 voters to pressure the government to increase health care funding. Kári argued the 2016 budget prioritized funerals over healthcare, as it increased funding for the Church while not meeting the needs of hospitals.
The petition Kári released on Friday is already the sixth largest in Icelandic history. The largest petition to date is a 2013 petition protesting plans to close the downtown Reykjavík airport. 69,637 people signed the petition. Kári has announced he will continue to collect signatures for the petition for ten weeks, at which time he will hand the petition over to the government, according to the local news site visir.is.
Public expenditure on health care is comparable to other Nordic countries
The Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, says he agrees with Kári that funding for health care must be increased, but that it is unwise to fix the funding to an arbitrary percentage of GDP. In an entry on his Facebook page Sigmundur argues there does not seem to be any direct link between health care spending as a percentage of GDP and prosperity, pointing out that the US spends more on health care than most other countries (17.1% of GDP) and that many developing countries spend more on health care than Iceland. “This is pretty simple, really. We must grow the economy and then spend more on health care and social insurance.”
The local news site visir.is notes that the figures Sigmundur Davíð quotes are total spending on health care, both public and private. Kári’s demand is that public spending be increase to 11% of GDP. This would put Iceland far ahead of the other Nordic countries. None of the Nordic countries spend more than 10% of GDP on public funding of health care. The share is highest in Sweden where public health expenditure is 9.2% of GDP, followed by Denmark where it is 8.8% and Norway with 7.6% and Finland at 6.5%. Currently public expenditure on health care is 7.1% of GDP in Iceland.
