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.
Johnson, J.A. & Stoskopf, H. (2010). Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives: Global perspectives. Sudbury, MA. Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
...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
After the Second World War, illness was amongst many Canadians, and many of them did not have any chances of recovering because they could not afford healthcare. Medicare made it possible for those who did not have much money, to receive treatment for their illnesses. Tuberculosis was the most crucial disease which was spreading after the war. This bacterial infection was sometimes called the “white plague” and many Canadians were haunted by it. Residents of Saskatchewan formed together the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis Commission to try and stop the spread of it, and make plans for controlling it in the future. When Tommy Douglas, a Baptist Minister who turned into a politician, was elected to the leadership of the recently formed national Democratic Party of Saskatchewan, many other governments had began to see the brilliance in his ideas and they began to embrace them. He began to uncover many different health plans which had boundaries to the amount of healthcare patients were going to receive. “Most of these plans, in order to stay solvent have to eliminate great many groups of people. Because of age, because of chronic conditions, because of genital illness, past medical history and so on. And these precisely are the people who need some kind of protection.
Gilmore, J. (2010, 11 03). Stats Canada. Retrieved 12 01, 2013, from Statistics Canada: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/
The Spanish Influenza was a contributing factor to the many deaths that occurred during this time. In 1918-1919, a form of influenza killed between 20 and 40 million p...
...e crucial change needed in health services delivery, with the aim of transforming the current deteriorated system into a true “health care” system. (ANA, 2010)
Willis, E, Reynolds, L & Keleher, H 2012, Understanding the australian health care system, Mosby Elesvier, Chatswood, NSW.
The Open University (2010) K101 An Introduction to Health and Social Care, Unit 7, ‘Understanding the Past’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
A country’s health care system refers to all the institutions, programs, personnel, procedures, and the resources that are used to meet the health needs of its population. Health care systems vary from one country to another, depending on government policies and the health needs of the population. Besides, health care programs are flexible in the sense that they are tailored to meet health needs as they arise. Among the stakeholders in the formulation of a country’s health care system are governments, religious groups, non-governmental organizations, charity organizations, trade/labor unions, and interested individuals (Duckett, 2008). These entities formulate, implement, evaluate, and reform health services according to the needs of the sections of the population they target.
Healthcare is like other avenues of business and life, it is constantly changing. At the turn of the 19th century, food and occupations were different than they are today. Like the changes in food and other occupations, healthcare is no different. We also would not want it to be. If the country remained struggling with the same challenges of 1899, then we would not have progressed as a medical society. As healthcare changes we all have to change. Change in our ways, tactics, thinking, and structure of the healthcare market. According to Merriam-Webster (2014) the maintaining and restoration of health by the prevention and treatment of diseases, mainly by trained professionals is healthcare (Merriam-Webster, 2014).
Newman, Alex. “Examining Healthcare: A Look Around the Globe at Nationalized Systems.” The New American. 15 Sep. 2008: 10. eLibrary. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
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...
Like in any country the aim of health care in Finland is to maintain and improve people’s health and wellbeing, social security and work and functional capacity and also to reduce health inequalities. In Finland the health care system is based on pre-ventive health care and well-run, comprehensive health services. The Ministry of So-cial and Affairs and Health is responsible for social and health policy and also pre-paring the legislation in social and health issues. The law requires for example the status and rights of patients and the timeframes for access to care. The aims in Finn-ish health policy are mainly directed to health promotion and disease prevention and everyone is entitled to adequate social and health services. When the main responsi-bility of preparing and planning of social and health policy and services are for Min-istry of Social Affairs and Health, but municipalities are responsible for arranging and funding health care. (Health Services, 2013.) The health care expenditures in Finland was 9 % of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) at 2010 - 2011 (Terveydenhuollon menot ja rahoitus, 2011).
Primary health care is the indispensable care based on the real – world, systematically sound, socially adequate technique and technology which made unanimously available to the families and every individuals in the community through their fully involvement where the community is capable to afford at a cost to uphold at every phase of their growth in the essence of self-reliance and self-government. Primary health care in international health is associated with the global conference held at Alma Ata in 1978; the conference that promoted the initiative health for all by the year 2000. “Primary health care defined broadly at Alma Ata emphasized universal health care across to all individuals and families , encouraged participation by community members in all aspects of health care planning and implementation and promoted the delivery of care that would be scientifically sound , technically effective , socially relevant and acceptable” (Janice E.Hitchcock,2003). Primary health care is commonly viewed as a level of care or as the entry point to the health care system for its client. It can also taken to mean a particular approach to care which is concerned with containing care, accessibility, community involvement and collaboration between other sectors. The primary health care policy has some principals that have been designed to work together and be implemented simultaneously to bring about a better health outcome for the entire society.
... 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.