Public health care services in the advanced welfare state: Observations from the Swedish futures study care in society

In 1978 the Swedish Secretariat for Future Studies—a government advisory body for long-term issues of broad societal significance—began its project “Care in Society”. The final project report was published in May 1982. The original purpose of the project was to study how conditions in society affect needs for care in different forms and how these needs are met—informally or through formal institutions. More broadly, the study came to be a general assessment of the welfare state and its growing problems. This article examines findings and proposals from the Swedish report.