The Swedish primary care system has a long tradition : since 1790 it has been “provincial practitioner system”. District physicians, who are working as general practitioners in communal medical centers, run the modern primary care system in Sweden. The duties of these district physicians are treatment, rehabilitation, pain abatement and preventive care. All physicians are communal officers and have played an important part in primary care since 1970. Eighty percent of the population prefer to consult district physicians rather than specialists. The death rate decreases every year thanks to the primary care system. Medical consultation by telephone and self-medication supported by the national pharmacy system have contributed to reducing medical costs as a proportion of GNP since 1981.