Health Financing
The health care system receives funding from two sources. Municipal financing is based on taxes and is used to provide primary health care services. They also have a right to collect user fees, and receive state subsidies if their tax levy is not adequate for providing the public services required, based on the demographic factors on their area. Municipalities fund the health centers on the primary care level and regional hospitals on secondary care level. As municipalities are both the providers and purchasers of the health services it does not encourage for cost-efficiency. National Health Insurance (NHI) is based on compulsory fees and it is used to fund private health care, occupational health care, outpatient drugs and sickness allowance. Regional and university hospitals are financed by federations of participating municipalities, often using the diagnosis-related group system.
Read more about this topic: Healthcare In Finland
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“Men’s hearts are cold. They are indifferent. Not all the coal that is dug warms the world. It remains indifferent to the lives of those who risk their life and health down in the blackness of the earth; who crawl through dark, choking crevices with only a bit of lamp on their caps to light their silent way; whose backs are bent with toil, whose very bones ache, whose happiness is sleep, and whose peace is death.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)