For decades, healthcare in Estonia has been funded through the health insurance portion of social tax. Since 2017, the state has also annually contributed additional funds to the Health Insurance Fund to cover the medical expenses of non-working pensioners. In the spring, Minister of Health Riina Sikkut presented the then-government with an idea that the state could, in the future, also pay social tax for children, which would yield additional funds for healthcare.

"For example, 13 percent on the minimum wage [portion of social tax] could be allocated for children. Currently, working-age individuals pay social tax themselves, the state pays for non-working pensioners, and children are simply insured. But if the state started contributing for children, this could actually cover the Health Insurance Fund's additional funding needs for the next 10-15 years, offering stability because population forecasts are predictable in the long term and it would fit into our current healthcare funding system," Sikkut explained.

The health minister said that she still supports this proposal. However, she has not yet presented the idea to the government that took office last month. According to Sikkut, healthcare funding will likely come under discussion during the upcoming state budget negotiations.

"During the fall, I will also present the hospital network development plan to the government. Its approval is a government decision. During these healthcare-related deliberations, we will undoubtedly also talk about funding, and we cannot ignore it in the budget. But I'm not dreaming of finding hundreds of millions in new funding from these talks. The framework was set during coalition negotiations."

For the state to be able to contribute additional funds to the Health Insurance Fund through covering children's medical expenses, new revenue sources would need to be found in the state budget. However, the minister of health does not see increasing social or labor taxes as the right approach in this context.

"As international recommendations have suggested, the additional funding for the Health Insurance Fund could come from general budget revenues. But undoubtedly, where these additional budget revenues would come from is a question for politicians. When we talk about changes to the tax system before the 2027 Riigikogu elections, the question will be what alternative ways there are to generate more revenue for the budget, and here there are differences in worldview," Sikkut noted.

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