Web-economic-crisis-health-systems-and-health-web

Finland
Jan Klavus and Lauri Vuorenkoski
Economic trends
• Real per capita GDP in Finland declined by 6.7% in 2009 but has since
made a recovery that is below the mean growth in the European region.
Government spending as a share of GDP is among the highest in Europe
and increased in 2009 during the crisis, leading to repeated years of
budget deficit.
• Unemployment rates remain comparatively low by European standards.
• Ten-year bond rates have fallen during the crisis and are among the lowest
in Europe.
• The share of government spending dedicated to health is below the
European average. Growth in all sources of financing slowed from 2008
to 2009. In 2010, public per capita spending decreased while there was a
slight acceleration in OOP expenditure (Finland: Figs 1 and 2).
Policy responses
Changes to public funding for the health system
• The central government subsidy to municipalities (a third of which is
spent on health services) was cut by 7% (2012) and its contribution to the
national health insurance scheme was cut by €153 million (4.2% of NHS
expenses) from 2013, with savings expected from changes to national health
insurance reimbursement of drugs, travel costs and private treatment.
Changes to health coverage
Population (entitlement)
• No response reported.
The benefits package
• No response reported.
User charges
• Co-payments abolished for health centre visits in Helsinki (2012).
• User charges increased for public health services (revised every other year based
on the public pensions index) by 9.3% (2010) and 0.4% (2012).