Estonian health insurance fund €21m further in the red than planned for 9-month period
The Estonian Health Insurance Fund’s (EHIF) total net loss for first nine months of the year is 31.8 million euros, which is 20.7 million euros greater of a loss than that for which had been budgeted.
The fund received two percent, or 18 million euros, more in social tax than planned for in the budget, however.
Over the course of nine months, the EHIF funded 564 million euros of health services, a nearly 33 million euro increase on the same period last year. 99 million euros of medications were compensated while 100 million euros in temporary incapacity benefits were paid out as well.
In that same period of time, a total of 710,000 insured persons utilized specialized medical care, going to a total of three million doctor’s appointments and spending 954,000 days hospitalized; on average, each patient spent 5.9 days in the hospital. Surgeons performed 115,000 operations in total. The number of people whose services rendered were funded by the EHIF remained at the same level as last year.
Pharmacies sold medications under a total of 6 million prescriptions, compensating an average of approximately 16 euros per prescription discount for persons insured by the EHIF. Funding for medications increased by nearly 19 percent, or 16 million euros, compared to the same period last year, the growth ofwhich was affected the most by hepatitis C drugs.
The 100 million euros paid out in temporary incapacity benefits was a 10-percent increase on the same period of time last year. A total of four million days of work incapacity were compensated, with the average compensation for one day coming in at 22 euros and 50 cents.
Compared to the same period last year, healthcare financing has increased the most for primary care, whose budget increased by twelve percent, or nearly 8 million euros. Also increased were funding for nursing care (six percent), specialized care (five percent) as well as dental care (four percent).
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla