Health, Wealth, and the Nordic Model Revisited

Abstract

The stubborn persistence of health inequalities in the otherwise egalitarian Nordic countries is a continual source of political and scholarly befuddlement. Both when it comes to morbidity and mortality outcomes, socially patterned health gaps keep gaping wide (Balaj et al., 2017; Eikemo, Bambra et al., 2008; Eikemo, Huisman et al., 2008; Institute of Health Equity, 2023; Mackenbach et al., 1997, 2008, 2018). Why have institutional constellations globally renowned for equalising life chances failed to address and redress unequal burdens of disease and death? Therborn (2013, pp. 132–137) goes as far as to rank this phenomenon among the top three ‘inequality puzzlesʼ of the twenty-first century. How can it be explained? And what does it tell us about the Nordic welfare model?