As health and well-being are crucial to the welfare of the population, this is naturally an important focus area for the welfare state, whose key tasks include providing a secure and smoothly functioning healthcare system. Together with those in the other Nordic countries, the Danish welfare state is categorised as belonging to the group of “universal welfare states”, which provide equal access to public sector services for all citizens. A significant issue in this context is equal access to healthcare services, but as these services are generally made available to the population free of charge, healthcare expenditure also imposes a major financial burden on the welfare state.

Health and well-being are often the object of political focus, and this is an area that is likely to attract even more attention in the coming years – particularly because elderly people constitute an increasing share of the population, and because this demographic draws heavily on the healthcare system. The future demand for healthcare services – and thus the financing of healthcare expenditure – is closely tied to the development in life expectancy and to whether or not the population ages healthily.