Roundup: Finland reduces subsidies for private health care customers

The basic service level of the Finnish health care system in the near future looks gloomier as the government has announced it would cut by half the reimbursements for seeing private doctors and dentists from next year.

A planned reform of public primary services is supposed to make public service a viable alternative to everyone, but it is years away.

The cutback in public funding for private health care is part of the austerity measures that also affect education and child care.

The previous Finnish government failed in its efforts to make public health care more efficient and to reduce the prevailing inequality in the availability of basic level care.

Finland has three parallel basic level health care systems. Those employed enjoy fairly accessible primary care paid by the employers and the government. Public health centres serve mainly those not working, including pensioners. The third alternative is private health stations.

As waiting period for non urgent patients may be as long as three months, many people have no choice but to go to private doctors and get a partial reimbursement from the government.

The hospital system works well, but those reaching a hospital via the public system may have wasted crucial time due to the waiting time.

Heikki Parnanen, public affairs director of the Finnish Medical Association representing physicians, told local media that the government so far reimburses roughly one third of the fee of a private doctor, but next year the kickback would be only 10 percent.

Parnanen said the Finnish system is already regressive. Less affluent Finns pay relatively more for their health care than the richer population. In Finland also the public centres charge for seeing a doctor in most municipalities, albeit much less than the private places.

Government has reimbursed the cost of seeing private practitioners since 1960s, but the level of public kickback has declined over the years.

With a view to upgrade the public system, a plan commissioned by the newly sworn-in government was published on Friday. It would arrange public health care on a regional basis.

Currently the country's 151 municipalities have been responsible for arranging health care. Roughly ten independent regional authorities would take over in 2019. Endit