Today’s big topic: 500,000 Danes could get free dental care as soon as next year
The Red-Green Alliance’s political spokesperson, Pelle Dragsted, and his party colleague Peder Hvelplund presented their imprint on the government negotiations on June 2, when they announced they had reached an understanding with the incoming government on free dental care.
What’s happening?
One of the biggest news when Denmark formed a new government was the plan to introduce free dental care for all Danes. The big questions left unanswered were: when and how? Now the curtain is being lifted on the first major step in the plan. The Red-Green Alliance’s political spokesman, Pelle Dragsted, calls the ambition of free dental care for all Danes »the biggest expansion of our welfare state in many decades«.
He is now presenting the plan his party has drawn up with the government. Under the plan, as many as 500,000 residents would be included in the scheme in 2027. As early as Tuesday, the bill will be sent out for consultation. According to Pelle Dragsted, all dental care that is not cosmetic would be covered, and that includes everything from checkups to cleanings, fillings, and other treatments deemed medically relevant. So, at first, the plan targets some of the Danes who are under the greatest financial strain or who have an extraordinary need for dental treatment.
»I think it’s really good that we start with some of the people who have the very least in our society«, Pelle Dragsted says.
Why it matters!
More specifically, the proposal is that the following groups will be covered next year: people on disability pension, recipients of cash assistance, people in so-called resource programs, and recipients of unemployment benefits, as well as those with chronic illnesses (for example, cancer patients who need extra dental care) and patients in municipal care and specialized dental services.
So far, the government and its supporting parties have set aside 4 billion DKK for the scheme through 2030. And according to Pelle Dragsted, that leaves room for even more people to receive free dental care during the current government’s term.
On that basis, he expects the eligible group for free dental care could be expanded by another one million people through 2030, and the government platform states that the ambition is to include everyone no later than 2035. Free dental care for everyone would be such a sweeping improvement in welfare that, once the rollout is underway, it will be very hard to stop, let alone reverse, Dragsted believes.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Copenhagen has become a city for richer families
Copenhagen and Frederiksberg have changed a lot over the past 40 years. According to the Economic Council of the Labor Movement (AE), many more young children now grow up in wealthy families, while far fewer come from working-class homes. In 1984, 8 percent of children aged 0 to 2 lived in upper-class or upper-middle-class families. In 2024, that number has risen to 54 percent. Over the same period, the share of young children from working-class families has fallen from 44 percent to 7 percent. AE says this means that »the highest social strata have, quite simply, pushed working-class children out of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg«.
Lars Andersen, CEO in AE, calls this »a negative development«, both because it weakens the idea of a mixed city and because the city still depends on workers such as daycare workers and tradespeople, who may have to live outside the city and commute a long way. He says rising housing costs and urban renewal have helped drive the change, creating larger, better, and more expensive apartments. Politicians are now looking at more social housing as one way to slow or reverse the trend.
– Novo shares slide on strategy update
Novo shares fell nearly five percent late Monday morning after the company presented an updated strategy at its capital markets day in London. CEO Mike Doustdar said Novo will continue to strengthen its core business in diabetes and weight loss while also expanding into areas such as liver disease and cardiovascular disease. The company is aiming to launch at least five multi-blockbuster products by 2030 and generate at least 150 billion DKK in sales from its pipeline of medicine in development.
– Companies say AI can make work easier and more enjoyable
Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a threat to jobs, but some companies say it is also making work faster, easier, and more satisfying for employees. Danish company Abacus Medicine, Europe’s second-largest company in the parallel import of medicines, says it uses AI to track medicine prices across countries, monitor updates to package leaflets, and review rules and tax requirements in different markets. According to CEO Flemming Wagner, the technology has not led to fewer staff, but to happier employees, because workers can now complete tasks in minutes that used to take days and spend more time on more interesting work. At the same time, concern about AI remains strong in Denmark, with new figures showing slower employment growth in companies that use it.
Talk of town: More details emerge on the Greenland deal
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s head of government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, visit the 9/11 memorial and Ground Zero in New York on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix)
As we wrote in yesterday’s newsletter, the United States, Greenland, and Denmark have reached an agreement on Greenland, after months of escalating tensions over Donald Trump’s demand to take control of Greenland.
Now, more details are beginning to emerge.
On Monday evening, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen met with his counterparts from the seven countries that make up the Arctic Seven alliance: Canada, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the United States, and Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended the meeting. Lars Løkke described the mood as »relieved« and said he remains positive about the agreement, which is due to be signed today at the United Nations in New York by Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
The agreement has not yet been made public, but new information suggests that it will include an expanded U.S. military presence in Greenland. According to Reuters and Danish broadcaster DR, the United States plans to reopen a former military base in Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland and establish a military presence at a base on Greenland’s east coast currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol. For Denmark and Greenland, the central question remains what exactly they have agreed to give the United States in return for an end to the dispute.
»I would not put my signature on an agreement, and neither would Jens-Frederik Nielsen, if it were not good for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark in general,« Mette Frederiksen said Monday before boarding her flight to New York.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.