Health and the Changing Welfare State in Norway: A Focus on Municipal Health Care for Elderly Sick

Abstract

This article aims to describe and discuss the health care system in Norway in a social, cultural and material context, with a main focus on the (the largely municipal) elderly care sector as part of a changing welfare state. The elderly care sector in Norway is extensive and mainly public, with only a small fraction being run by commercial firms or by voluntary organizations. As the Norwegian welfare state has been changing quite much during the latest two decades, the same holds true for the elderly care sector.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]