The proposal, part of a dental reform agreed with the far-right Sweden Democrats will cut the cost of healthcare for the over-67s by 59 percent, reducing the average annual dental bill from 4,600 kronor to 1,900 kronor.
"Everyone who has ever needed dental care can understand how urgent this is," Sweden's health and social affairs minister, Jakob Forssmed, told the TT newswire.
"You know that you need to go to the dentist because you're in pain but at the same time you see that you don't have enough money in your account, and you know that it's only going to get worse."
Under the reform, which comes into force on January 1st next year, people over the age of 67 will only have to pay 10 percent of the cost of the most common dental treatments, like fillings, tooth removal, or implants.
Private doctors will be prevented from taking advantage of the increased subsidy, which will cover 90 percent of the cost of care, by being forced to follow reference prices which will be fixed every year for each type of treatment.
The new system will not cover all sorts of dental care, with some routine checks and dental examinations continuing to be covered under the current system of dental subsidies and high-cost protection
At the press conference, the government displayed a slide showing the difference in expected annual dental spending, with the reform (grey) and without it (black).
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