For
something a little different, today I’m going to give a brief overview of the
Finnish health care system. Finland is widely regarded as having one of the
best health care systems in the world, coming in at number 31 in the World
Health Organization rankings, compared to the US at number 37. Finland has a
decentralized universal health care system, meaning insurance is free to all
citizens and funded by taxes.
Finland’s
health care system is decentralized because it is provided by its 348
municipalities. The median population for municipalities is around 6000. The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health sets overall health care guidelines for
the country, and municipalities are free to provide specific services that
align with those guidelines. Each municipality does things slightly
differently, but the overall health care is at about the same level of quality.
The quality
of care in Finland is considered one of the highest in OECD countries. Below is
a graphic that shows different colors for quintiles of OECD countries. Finland
is represented by the grey dot, and as you can see it does well in almost every
category.
Some
important factors that affect Finland’s health care system are the importance
of health equity among socioeconomic groups, its small population of 5.5
million, and its overall aging population. Finland has always had health equity
at the core of its health care system. For this reason, public health insurance
is free for all citizens and very high quality. This system works at this scale
of 5.5 million people, but it probably would not work for the US. Finally, as
you can see in the graphic below, Finland currently has a population above age
65 of 19.4%, but that is expected to increase to 26.9% by the year 2050. This will
affect the type of health care needed, with an increase in services catered
towards the elderly.
Overall,
Finland has a great health care system that its citizens are happy with. 70% of
Finns believe that their health system runs “quite well,” and they would make
very little or no improvements. Finland strives to make their health care
system accessible and affordable for all citizens.
