Care Health Media News
Care Health Media News
Finland has a highly decentralized three level publicly funded system of health care and alongside these, a much smaller private health care system. Responsibility for health care is devolved to the municipalities (local government).
Health standards
There are 307 residents for each doctor. About 18.9% of health care is funded directly by households and 76.6% by taxation. Finland limits medicine sales to about 800 licensed pharmacies. Some significant institutions include Ministry of Health and National Public Health Institute.
In a comparison of 16 countries by Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions , Finland used the least resources and attained average results, making Finland the most efficient public sector health service producer according to the study's authors.
Life expectancy is 82 years for women and 75 years for men. After having one of the highest death rates from heart disease in the world in the 1970s, improvements in the Finnish diet and exercise have paid off. Finland has exceptionally low smoking rates: 26% for males and 19% for females.
Finland's health problems are similar to other developed countries: circulatory diseases make up about half of all causes of death, and cancer is the second most common cause of death.
The total annual consumption of pure alcohol by residents is lower than other European countries, even though heavy drinking is common at parties on the weekend. However, becoming intoxicated has remained the central characteristic of Finnish drinking habits. In the working-age population, diseases or accidents caused by alcohol consumption have recently surpassed coronary artery disease as the biggest single cause of death.
Schools teach sports, health and hands-on cooking classes. Finnish schoolchildren have one of the lowest amounts of sport classes in the European Union, and according to National Public Health Institute only a third of adults exercise enough. National Public Health Institute claims that 54% of males and 38% of females are overweight, while other estimates put the rates at 70% and 50%. The rate of diabetes is predicted to grow to 15% by 2015. Finland has the world's highest rate of Type I diabetes.
Structure
Primary health care is obtained from district health centers employing general practitioners and nurses that provide most day-to-day medical services. The general practitioners are also gatekeepers to the more specialized services in the secondary and tertiary care sectors. Secondary care is provided by the municipalities through district hospitals where more specialist care is available. Finland also has a network of five university teaching hospitals which makes up the tertiary level. These contain the most advanced medical facilities in the country and they are where Finnish doctors learn their profession. These are funded by the municipalities, but national government meets the cost of medical training. These hospitals are located in the major cities of Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Kuopio, and Oulu.
There is a high level of co-operation between the various sectors with almost all having access to computerised patient data based on open source software originally developed for the U.S. Veterans Health Administration and compliant with CDA subset of HL7 interoperability standards . Since the 1980s, the planning system for basic health care has been extended and now plans not just health care services but also homecare for the elderly and day care for children creating a fairly seamless cradle to grave system.
The separate private health care system is very small. Between 3 and 4 per cent of hospital in-patient care is provided by the private health care system and the remainder by the public system. Physiotherapy, dentistry and occupational health services are the main areas where the private sector is most used, although the municipalities by law also have to provide basic dental services. Employers are obliged by law to provide occupational health care services for their employees, as are educational establishments for their students as well as their staff. Only about 10 per cent of the income of private sector income comes from private insurance. Most is paid for out of pocket, but a significant share of the cost is reclaimable from the National Insurance system KELA. Spectacles, however, are not publicly subsidized.
A Patient’s Injury Law gives patients the right to compensation for unforeseeable injury that occurred as a result of treatment or diagnosis. Health care personnel need not be shown to be legally responsible for the injury thus avoiding the development of a litigious blame culture and the development of defensive medical practices. To receive compensation, it is sufficient that unforeseeable injury as defined by law occurred. A law on patients’ status and rights, the first such law in Europe, ensures a patient’s right to information, to informed consent to treatment, the right to see any relevant medical documents,and the right to autonomy. Legislation also lays down the time frame in which a person must be ensured access to necessary medical care and defines the small percentage of treatments that are to be considered as non-urgent. Doctors comply with care guidelines set by medical experts, but these are just guidelines and doctors are free to decide independently how to treat patients. The government does not dictate how doctors may treat their patients.
The quality of service in Finnish health care is considered to be good and according to a survey published by the European Commission in 2000, Finland has the highest number of people satisfied with their hospital care system in the EU: 88% of Finnish respondents were satisfied compared with the EU average of 41.3%. Finnish health care expenditures are below the European average.
Overall, the municipalities (funded by taxation, local and national) meet about two thirds of all medical care costs and the remaining one third by the national insurance system (nationally funded), and private finance (either employer funded or met by patients themselves). There are caps on total medical expenses that are met out of pocket for drugs and hospital treatments. All necessary costs over these caps are paid for by the National Insurance system. Public spending on health care in 2006 was 13.6 billion euros, equivalent to 2,586 euros (US$ 4,031) per person annually. The increase over 2005 at 8.2 per cent was below the OECD average of 9 percent. Household budgets directly met 18.7 per cent of all health care costs.
References
- ^ "Health (2004)". Statistics Finland . http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_terveys_en.html . Retrieved 2007-01-22 .
- ^ Svensk sjukvård i internationell jämförelse 2008 (in Swedish)
- ^ "Finland Life expectancy at birth - Demographics". Indexmundi.com. 2009-09-17 . http://indexmundi.com/finland/life_expectancy_at_birth.html . Retrieved 2010-02-04 .
- ^ "Fat to fit: how Finland did it". Guardian Unlimited . 2005-01-15 . http://www.guardian.co.uk/befit/story/0,15652,1385645,00.html . Retrieved 2007-01-22 .
- ^ Health Care in Finland, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 2004
- ^ "Alcohol use in Finland". National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (Stakes) . 2005 . http://www.paihdelinkki.fi/Articles/111-alcohol-use-in-finland . Retrieved 2008-04-18 .
- ^ YLE Uutiset
- ^ a b c Miehet kuntoon! Kansalaiskunnon lasku ja korjaavat toimenpiteet
- ^ http://b2cpro.vtt.fi/documents/usa/2007-03-mayo-vesa.pdf Implementation of electronic health records and data portability in Finland
- ^ http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_283_en.pdf European Commission: Health and long-term care in the European Union
- ^ http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/oikea/id88679.html News item on healthcare costs in 2006 (in Finnish)
Health Care News and Video - FOX News Topics - FOXNews ...
Watch breaking news videos and read news updates about Health Care on FOXNews.com.
Is Health Care Reform Possible? Pitt’s Graduate ...
Congressman Tim Murphy; Congressman Jason Altmire; former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill; and moderator Beaufort Longest will participate in a Health Care Reform Forum.
MOHLTC - News Release - Health Care Connect : Linking ...
February 12, 2009. Health Care Connect is an innovative, made-in-Ontario program devoted to helping Ontarians without a family health care provider find one in their community.
Tufts Daily - The news media failed on health care ...
In the 2009 debate over health care reform, it can be argued that there was one particular factor that contributed to the current situation. It was not conservative opposition to ...
Pharma & Health Care
Health Care - Get the latest information about the business of ... CIO Network Digital Media Enterprise Tech Infoimaging ... Pharma News From AP
News & Media | Saint Elizabeth Health Care
The need for charitable contributions is up and rising. But with 90 per cent of donations expected to come from just 10 per cent of donors, charities that aim to succeed must ...
News & Events | Alberta Health Services
Innovation Improving Care; Feature Stories; Events; Back to Home ... Keep up to date with news releases from Alberta Health Services. Health Advisories
Health Care News | bizjournals
What’s the latest drug to get approved? What’s the latest drug recall? Find breaking health care news and in-depth analysis at bizjournals.
News and Publications: University of Iowa Health Care
News and Publications Archives. Medical Minute. Media. UI Health Care Today Radio Program from KXIC Radio . Marketing Campaign: The Leading Edge. Homerun for Life Videos
News Media and 'Health Care Apartheid' by Norman ...
Norman Solomon Opinion Columns - News Media and 'Health Care Apartheid'
