One Danish municipality has come up with a novel way to reduce health-care costs. It sends its senior citizens to the sun.
Farum, a town about nine miles north-west of Copenhagen, gives its older people annual holidays to improve their mental and physical well-being.
The programme was instituted by the town's mayor, Peter Brixtofte, who claims it saves money on health care for older citizens in the area, which has a population of about 35,000.
The elderly of Farum fly in groups for a week in Spain, where they tend to meet people, make friends and spend time talking about their ailments, according to Lis Truels Jensen, who runs a Danish breast-cancer support group.
They often stay in touch with each other when they get back, and spend more time comparing medical notes with one another than with their doctors. This avoids the expense of a trip to a GP.
They also benefit physically from a week in the sun and look forward to the following year's trip, she says.
Mayors face re-election every four years; a spokesman for Denmark's health ministry acknowledges that the system helps Brixtofte when he faces the voters.