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

Country profiles of health system responses to the crisis | Finland
377
• Annual deductible for outpatient prescription drugs reduced from
€700.92 to €670, after which patients pay €1.50 per prescription (2013).
• Reduction of the outpatient prescription drug reimbursement rate from
42% to 35% and from 72% to 65% (2013).
• Reimbursement of private treatment changed from a percentage-based
system to a flat rate (2013).
• Co-payments for travel costs increased from €9.25 to €14.25 per trip
(2013).
• Annual cap on OOP travel costs increased from €157.25 to €242.25
(2013).
• Plans for a new annual deductible of €50 for outpatient prescription
drugs for adults from 2015.
Changes to health service planning, purchasing and delivery
Prices of medical goods
• Reduction of maximum wholesale drug prices by 5% (2013).
Salaries and motivation of health sector workers
• No response reported.
Payment to providers
• Introduction of vouchers for health services to mitigate public sector pressures
and increase freedom of choice for services users (2011); vouchers used by 27
municipalities while 32 plan to expand or introduce them.
Overhead costs: restructuring the Ministry of Health and purchasing agencies
• The government plans to drastically increase the size of municipalities
(which have the responsibility to fund and organize services). The
plan was originally announced in 2005 as the Paras-project (Project to
Restructure Local Government and Services). Among other things this is
anticipated to increase financial stability and efficiency of services.
Provider infrastructure and capital investment
• Reduction of the number of municipalities from 432 to 336 between 2005
and 2011 through restructuring and mergers, in order to increase pooling
of resources.
Priority setting or protocols to change access to treatments, coordination
of care and patterns of use
• No response reported.