Facts about Finland
- Area 338,145 km2
- Inhabitants 5.2 million
- Life expectancy 78 years
- Currency euro/EUR (USD=0.8956, average rate)
- Gross domestic product at current prices EUR 26,033 /inhabitant
- Wage-earners’ average monthly pay for regular hours of work EUR 2,142
- President elected every 6th year
- Parliament 200 MPs, elected every 4th year
- Government 13 ministries
- Regional government 5 Provinces plus the autonomous Province of Åland Islands
- Local government 448 municipalities (in 2002, largest 560,000 inhabitants,
smallest 128 inhabitants)
A few words about the Finnish public health care system
Primary Health Care
The responsibility for organizing health care in Finland lies with the local authority
municipalities across the country. These can either provide primary health care services
independently or join with the neighbouring municipalities in joint municipal boards which
set up joint health centre. They can also buy in health care services from other
munici-palities or the private sector. There are altogether about 270 health centres in
Finland (2002 figure). Each health centre can have several units.
Health services are funded mainly from taxation revenue, partly from local taxation and
partly from central govern-ments grants. The central government contribution to municipal
social welfare and health care expenditure is determined by the population, age structure
and morbidity of the municipality plus a number of other computational factors. Around 10
per cent of public health care costs are covered by customer charges.
Specialist Medical Care
The local authorities are responsible for organizing specialist medical care for
residents of the municipality. To this end, the country is divided into 20 hospital
districts. Each hospital district has a central hospital, five of which are university
hospitals. Each municipality must belong to one or other of the hospital districts. The
hospital district organize and provide specialist medical services for the population of
their area.
Private Health Care
Public health provision is supplemented by private health care services. They are
concentrated primarily in the larger municipalities. Less than 10 per cent of physicians
work exclusively in the private sector, but many public health service doctors hold
private surgeries outside their regular working hours. There are also a few private
hospitals in Finland.
Patients can reclaim part of the fees charged by private doctors from the national
health insurance system; a similar system also applies to private dental charges.