82,000 Lack Health Insurance
Recent figures show that as many as 82,000 residents of Estonia, or 6 percent of the population, have no health insurance.
Despite dropping unemployment levels, the number includes about 30,000 more people than last year, Postimees reported.
Estonia's state health insurance is provided free of to all residents regardless of citizenship or employment status, but those who are not working will only receive it if they register themselves as unemployed or as welfare recipients.
Officials from the Ministry of Interior and Unemployment Insurance Fund have estimated that about 28,000 of those who are unaccounted for are working abroad either legally or illegally, while about 10,000 are long-term unemployed who have given up on the state welfare system.
The remainder are believed to be those working informally at home, those being paid illegally and students taking a break from their studies.
Steve Roman