Healthcare in Finland remains world-class in 2018

The Health Consumer Powerhouse Ltd (HCP) recently released its annual Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI) report, which ranks Finnish healthcare to be 6th best in the EU for a second year.

800 Club

Finland did well to get a total of 839 out of a potential 1000 points, this is the result of getting the best grade (good) in 27 out of the 46 indicators. This score secures the country a place in the exclusive 800 Club, of which there are only 7 others. It’s worth mentioning that no country has broken the 900 point threshold this year.

To quote the healthcare report:

“Finland has established itself among the European champions, with top Outcomes at a fairly low cost.”

This is in reference to the 3-way tie in Outcomes with Norway and Switzerland at 278 points.

Outstanding healthcare

As well as the sub-discipline Outcomes, that measures areas such as cancer survival and lifespan. Finland scored well in Range and reach of services provided, almost perfectly in fact! This means that things like access to public dental care and long term care for the elderly are in place, as they should be.

Opportunities for improvement

After that, the report states that the waiting times for treatment could be shortened. Additionally, more facilities for dental care and other generally elective procedures (such as cataract surgery) gets a mention. Lastly, patients pay a little bit more for prescription medication compared to Finland’s neighboring Nords.

Ever-evolving scoring system

The HCP reassesses the importance of areas of healthcare to be reviewed each year. Therefore, they have removed previous indicators where the majority of countries scored green. Similarly, they have replaced two other indicators with data quality issues. As a result, two new indicators were introduced to focus on improving mental health: Access to psychiatric care for children and Suicide reduction.

TL;DR

In a nutshell: Finland’s healthcare system is still excellent, is still affordable and the services available are broad and mostly public. That last part alone is pretty incredible in this day and age!

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References:
https://healthpowerhouse.com/media/EHCI-2018/EHCI-2018-report.pdf
https://healthpowerhouse.com/media/EHCI-2018/EHCI-2018-index-matrix-A3-sheet.pdf
https://healthpowerhouse.com/media/EHCI-2018/EHCI-2018-press-release.pdf