While many issues are still up in the air one thing is clear: Juha Sipilä’s administration will be taking the social and health care sector closer to a market-driven model in which private sector providers will play a major role.
Helsingin Sanomat reports that each Finnish resident will have to select a health and wellbeing centre that will provide the majority of his or her social and health care services. Service counselors will also be available to advise customers. Health and wellbeing centres can be province-owned public companies, private companies or a provider owned by an NGO or other society.
On the flip side of the coin private sector companies will be able to sign up as service providers once they meet the required criteria laid down by the government. They will also be expected to compete for customers by developing their services.
The government will finance the provision of services by way of payments to regional organisations, however customers will also pay into the system by contributing client fees. The model will centre on 18 regional bodies that will be responsible for organising public services.
Specialist hospital care however will remain in the public sector domain. The current five university hospitals and seven other central facilities will continue to provide specialist services as well as related emergency care.
End to Kela compensation
The social and health care revamp will mean an end to the current system of reimbursements paid out by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, Kela. The funds that would otherwise be used to compensate patients for their health care expenses will be channeled into the new system.
This means that customers who opt to buy services from private sector providers will have to fork out the full amount themselves, or ensure they have health insurance coverage.
HS reports that critics have described the model as a feeding tube for the private sector. Health ministry deputy permanent secretary and head of the reform project Tuomas Pöysti said he understands the reaction.
"I understand the criticism, and there are risks, but we are creating a totally new concept. It can’t be compared to any current model," he added.
HS attributed the freedom of choice concept to the National Coalition Party, for whom it has been a central theme. Moreover the paper noted that this government has turned to a different set of experts for guidance on the way forward, with a key influencer having been the VATT Institute for Economic Research.
Police probe underage binge-drinking in Hyvinkää
Tabloid daily Ilta-Sanomat reports that the Itä-Uusimaa police department is currently investigating the case of a 13 year-old girl who was treated for an alcohol overdose last weekend. The incident took place in Hyvinkää and involved a young girl who had reportedly consumed a large amount of hard liquor at a skate part in the town centre.
The drink proved to be too much for the youngster however, and she took ill. She was rescued by another teen who had the presence of mind to call for help. She was rushed to intensive care at Helsinki’s pediatric hospital, where she was treated for alcohol poisoning.
The girl’s father reportedly went public with the incident on Facebook in an effort to raise awareness of teen drinking. IS reports that the case has stimulated heated discussion among education officials in Hyvinkää, since the girl is apparently not the only youngster who has succumbed to the effects of excessive alcohol consumption. Education director Pentti Halonen told the paper that there seems to be a practice of selling alcohol to underage children.
"Others have been offered and sold or at least attempts have been made to sell alcohol. The police have been asked to determine how widespread the activity is," Halonen said.
Hamlet's first baby in 15 years
Finland commemorated its surviving war heroes with style on the occasion of Veteran’s Day on Wednesday, but as tabloid Iltalehti reports, residents of the tiny village of Hienoniemi in northern Karelia gathered last Sunday for a different kind of celebration.
The occasion was the hamlet’s first birth in 15 years. So significant was the event, that the entire population of 90 souls was invited to the local community centre to toast the arrival of the youngest resident, Martta Nyrhinen, who turned four months old.
Along with her parents, Niko Nyrhinen 34, and Sinikka Kuittinen, 26, roughly 30 townsfolk turned out for the party. IL shares a memorable snapshot featuring the town’s oldest and youngest inhabitants: Martta Nyrhinen, 4 months, and Aune Makkonen 95 years old.