The Health Insurance Fund of Estonia, folloing best practices in management, has published its annual reports since 2002 to in its webpage here. The latest annual report for year 2023 is available in English language.
Foreword by the Executive board of the Health Insurance Fund states:
A sustainable health care system is the cornerstone of a strong society and must be seen as an investment. In 2023, 97% of all people in Estonia came into contact with the health care system in one way or another. In 2023, we funded 2.1 billion euros in health care, which helped 1.18 million people to access health services and health insurance benefits. Compared to 2022, funding has increased by nearly 253 million euros. At the same time, demographic changes and the rapid development of medicine mean that the provision of health services is becoming more complex every year.
Therefore, we must invest more in health promotion and disease prevention. These two fundamental and strategic areas were directly financed by the Health Insurance Fund in the amount of nearly 28 million euros in 2023, but the amount is even higher if we consider indirect measures. Among other things, we fund cancer screenings, organise national vaccinations, have taken over addiction counselling and treatment services, and support school health care as well as several health promotion projects related to the dental care, mental health, and sexual health of children. The results are clear – for example, there was a significant improvement in the participation rates for all three cancer screening tests in 2023.
The Estonian health care system is based on compulsory solidarity-based health insurance. The Health Insurance Fund fo Estonia is a legal entity established under the law, the main function of which at the time of establishment was the administration of the solidary health insurance system and the provision of health insurance benefits to insured people. Until 31 March 2023, it was called Haigekassa in Estonian and after that was renamed as “Tervisekassa”, with a strong emphasis on Estonian word “Health” (“Tervis“), as described in the annual report:
The name change has been a fundamental and necessary change, which is related to the goal of emphasising the end result of our activities – maintaining and restoring health. The Health Insurance Fund is not a passive payer of medical bills – we are increasingly engaged in disease prevention and health promotion to improve health outcomes.
The report is 80 pages and was approved on 1 April 2024.
