History
The current state of healthcare provision in Finland can be traced to its roots beginning prior to the Second World War and just before Nazi occupation in the region. Tuberculosis and infectious disease was responsible for nearly one in three Finn deaths, particularly among the younger population of the time. (Koskinen, 2006) As such, government-sponsored healthcare was primarily rendered in tuberculosis sanitaria distributed throughout the country and initially divided into tuberculosis districts known today as municipalities.
After the war Finland increased its welfare to accommodate a network of regionally sponsored maternity and child-care centers and immunization programs which grew from the prolific availability of midwives and public nurses who were available on a much larger scale than trained physicians. The eventual eradication of tuberculosis and control of other infectious disease rendered the sanitaria less useful and they were absorbed into approximately twenty government hospital districts throughout the country that were soon found ill equipped to care for more serious diseases by the sixties. (Jutta, 2002) According to Teperi, life expectancy for 40-year-old Finnish males was the lowest in Europe in the late 1960s. (Teperi, 2009) Moreover, the relative sizes of the facilities and populations who sought care from these hospital districts dictated an imbalance in the per hospital expenditure level and quality of care.
In the years that followed, numerous health acts were passed through legislative measures that sought to provide Finland’s residents with various types of public health care assistance. Today, the people of Finland are among the best cared for inhabitants of the planet. The str...
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...th_Care_System_SITRA2009.pdf. Retrieved March 1, 2012, from www.isc.hbs.edu
Jutta, J., Rico, A., & Cetani, T. (2002). Finland. Health Care Systems in Transition. www.euro.who.int/document/e74071.pdf. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from www.euro.who.int
FINLEX ® - Säädöskäännösten tietokanta: 731/1999 englanti. (n.d.). FINLEX ® - Valtion säädöstietopankki. Retrieved March 1, 2012, from http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/1999/en19990731
Statistics Finland -. (n.d.). Tilastokeskus - Statistikcentralen - Statistics Finland. Retrieved March 2, 2012, from http://www.stat.fi/til/vaerak/2010/vaerak_2010_2011-03-18_kuv_005_en.html
OECD Health Data 2011 How Does Finland Compare. (2011). www.oecd.org/dataoecd/42/44/40904932.pdf. Retrieved February 15, 2012, from www.oecd.org/finland
Henderson, J. W. (2012). Health Economics and Policy (5th ed.). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.
...rofiles of Health Care Systems, The Commonwealth Fund, June 2010. Retrieved April 20th, 2011 from website: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2010/Jun/1417_Squires_Intl_Profiles_622.pdf
In the 1800’s, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium, among others, began to establish “socialized insurance policies” and medical care, which are still in effect today, while at the same time, the United States began to furthe...
“Patients have an extraordinary degree of choice among providers” (Rodwin 1). Not only are individuals allowed to select their doctor, but also doctors are able to choose where they want to work and whether it is in the private or public sector. In this way, the French still maintain their ideas of liberalism in their healthcare, while maintaining a system that cares for each of its citizens. It also prevents the lack of choice that exists in some national healthcare systems and is a concern for countries considering a variation of one of these
Newman, Alex. “Examining Healthcare: A Look Around the Globe at Nationalized Systems.” The New American. 15 Sep. 2008: 10. eLibrary. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
are pro’s and con’s depending on which health care system a nation chooses to adopt and implement. The United States health care system is not universal or mandatory yet it is among the top spenders on health care, however the quality of care delivered to patients is among the best in the world. Japan’s health care system is universal and mandatory and they are one of the lowest spenders on health care and are among the healthiest populations with low infant mortality and high life expectancy rates. The United States health care system and Japan’s health care system share similarities and differences which both have advantages and disadvantages for their citizens seeking health care.
The influenza pandemic of 1918 had not only altered the lives of thousands, but the habitual lives of family and work as well. The Spanish Influenza collected more lives than all of the casualties of war in the twentieth century combined. After the disease had swept through the nation, towns that once began their days in lazy, comfortable manners had begun to struggle to get through a single day. What started as a mild neglect of a typical fever or case of chills had escalated and grown at an alarmingly rapid rate to be fearsome and tragic.
National health systems are assessed by the extent to which expenditure and actions in public health and medical care contributes to the crucial social goals of improving health, increasing access to quality healthcare, reducing health disparities, protecting citizens from penury due to medical e...
By 1920 state regulation of medicine gave it enormous power with hospitals at the top of regional hierarchies. The profession was the first body to be consulted by government in matters of health. The model of health used by a society and individual cultures has important implications. The allocation of government money to fund healthcare is just one of them. Resources are allocated for the diagnosis and treatment of specific conditions and diseases. Social acceptance of a condition being referred to as an illness provides rewards including medical treatment, social acceptance of a sick role and financial benefits. Also the medical vi...
Located on the western side of South America, Peru is a relatively small country with a very strong culture. Many of the people in Peru are descendants of the people who resided on the land thousands of years ago (Lyle). Because of this, much of the culture and their way of life has stayed the same. However, quite a bit has changed in the country of Peru in recent years as well, and for the better. Medical care is an aspect of the country that has never been quite strong enough. There are several different factors that contribute to this issue, including poor water, not enough medical workers, and citizens that can’t afford to be cared for when they are sick or injured (“Peru”). Medical care has been a struggle in Peru for quite some time, but things are slowly starting to turn around for the country thanks to governmental programs and projects that have been started to help with the medical care of Peru’s citizens. Although there are several programs out there to help the citizens, the country’s health care isn’t quite efficient enough and does not adequately serve the population.
The health care system in the United States of America has been an ongoing issue for years to come. America has many issues to resolve concerning health coverage that could improve by taking learning from successful countries. Examining the different countries from the documentary “Sick Around the World”, who have the top health care systems throughout the world could help America improve and fill the gaps in our health care system.
In the fall of 1918 influenza appeared for the first time in pockets across the globe. At first it was pushed aside as a case of the common cold. The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. (1) Including twenty-eight percent of all Americans. In those two years an estimated six hundred and seventy-five thousand Americans died because of influenza. This was the greatest scare Americans had ever seen from a single disease. People between the age of twenty and forty were at the greatest risk of infection. Even President Woodrow Wilson suffered from the flu in early 1919 while negotiating the crucial treaty of Versailles to end the World War. The public health departments distributed gauze masks to be worn in public. Stores could not hold sales; funerals were limited to 15 minutes. Some towns required a signed certificate to enter and railroads would not accept passengers without them. (1) Influenza had killed nearly as many American servicemen as died in battle, ten times and over that number of American civilians, and twice as many people in the world as died in combat on all fronts in the entire four...
Denmark is a small high-income country with a high population density, is governed by a constitutional monarchy, has a central parliament and is administratively divided into regions, municipalities and has 2 dependencies (Greenland and the Faroe Islands) (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). It has a national health service (funded by general taxation) and a decentralized healthcare system in which the individual regions run most services and the municipalities are responsible for some public health services (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). However, a process of (re) centralization (under the structural reform of 2007) has been taking place, which has lowered the number of regions from 14 to 5 and the municipalities from 275 to 98 (Olejaz, Nielsen, Rudkjøbing, Okkels, Krasnik & Hernández-Quevedo, 2012; Schäfer et al., 2010). The hospital structure is also undergoing reform, moving towards fewer, bigger and more specialized hospitals (Olejaz, Nielsen, Rudkjøbing, Okkels, Krasnik & Hernández-Quevedo, 2012). Greenland and the Faroe Islands are independent in health matters but follow the Danish Legislation (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). The National Board of Health (NBH) (based in Copenhagen) is responsible for the legislation concerning dentistry in Denmark (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009; Schäfer et al., 2010).
Health services are also divided in public health services and private health services, but from another point of view, there are three different health care system in Finland which receive public funding: municipal health care (public), private health care and occupational health care (private or municipal). The largest share of health care ser-vices is provided by the municipal health care system. (Vuorenkoski, Mladovsky & Moissalos, 2008.) National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira) is nationally responsible for monitoring social and health care in Finland. Valvira monitors public and private social and he...
Heath, I. (2005), ‘Who needs health care- the well or the sick?’ in British Medical Journal, 330: 954-956.
... the elderly of Irish society it is also evident that there are issues over medical cards, problems with waiting lists, private consultations fees and shortages of beds as well as a general deterioration of quality of services on offer at care home facilities. Problems in the healthcare system provide incentives that favour the treatment of private patients over public patients. Such differences have effectively consolidated the two-tiered system. Recommendations to eliminate health care inequalities would be to introduce the government's proposal of the universal social health insurance scheme. For this to be achieved citizen engagement is important to abolish the current range of inequalities embedded in the Irish Healthcare system. The principle of equity could then potentially be enhanced and thus create a more equal society not based on money but based on need.