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The Local Sweden · 17 tim sedan Utrikes

Sweden's Social Democrats pledge 'dental care reform of the century'

The opposition Social Democrats have launched their election programme just two weeks before Sweden goes to the polls, headlining it with a generous pledge for the state to cover the cost 90 percent of all adult dental care.

The Social Democrats are promising to extend the high-cost protection for dental care recently awarded to people over the age of 67 and extend it to cover the entire adult population so that no one has to pay more than 10 percent of the reference price for many types of dental treatment.

The party also plans to bring back free dental care for 19- to 23-year-olds, which was withdrawn by the current government.

"We want to take the next big step in the roll-out of social democratic welfare and Sweden's welfare society," Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson said, as she announced the new pledge. "We are going to the polls on the dental care reform of the century."

The policy seems designed to match generous pledges already announced by the ruling Moderate, Sweden Democrat, Christian Democrat and Liberal parties in an election that is shaping up to be a bidding war over which party can offer the most attractive package of tax cuts and welfare boosts.

It is, in fact, identical to the flagship welfare reform of the far-right Sweden Democrats, who are also promising to cover 90 percent of the cost of dental care for adults.

READ ALSO: The Local's guide to the Social Democrats

The Social Democrats did not give a firm timeline for when or how the subsidy would be extended.

"This is not going to happen overnight, it's going to need to happen in several stages, but it is going to become a reality," Andersson said.

Sweden Democrat group leader Linda Lindberg accused the Social Democrats of stealing her party's main election pledge.

"The Social Democrats are now presenting a cheap copy of the SD's biggest election promise and calling it the 'dental care reform of the century', the same proposal that they have previously criticised," she told the Expressen newspaper.

READ ALSO: How party election pledges could affect foreigners in Sweden

The Social Democrats' finance spokesperson said he believed it was positive if more than one party pushes for the same proposal.

"What I'm more surprised about is that the Sweden Democrats chose to make it more expensive for young people to go to the dentist. This is a short-sighted policy which will make it [dental care] more expensive in the long term."

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