Private health insurance in finland

alondra · Post by **alondra** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:42 pm

Hi
Is there a web page with all private health insurance from Finland? Someone told me that choosing an insurance plan also depends of your needs. I am looking for a family health insurance, where I can find good doctors who cares about their patient.

All types of information will be highly appreciated

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Mook · Post by **Mook** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:26 pm

http://www.kela.fi

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:44 pm

As a starting point, all the insurance policies what Finnish companies offer are on top of the national health insurance scheme - basically offering limited amount of private health care and covered health care costs on top of it for some extra comfort and savings, if you need the care.

As a consequence:

A) They are not available to anybody who is not KELA insured.
B) They have rather low upper limit of compensation (probably not at least higher than 50 000 €) - in any case, if your kids life would depend on getting treated by the best specialist in US, they would not offer much help.

(perhaps you knew this already, but probably some of the others don't)

alondra · Post by **alondra** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:11 pm

Thanks for the inf. I do have Kela. Will it make a difference if I have kela and another insurance? Do I will get better treatment or I will still have the same standard of treatment. I know people that have private insurance and they swear that is much better. I want my child to be seem by a pediatrician not by a regular general doctor, per example...that does not matter if I move or stay in same city, still I get to see the same doctor.
I don't want to feel that I am almost dead for a doctor to send me to a specialist...

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:45 pm

You can go to see a specialist in private clinic if you want - if you have an insurance it will pay the costs (after typically some deductible), otherwise you will pay them yourself (you get little, but not much, back from KELA).

With the insurance premiums you could of course pay occasional private doctor visit, so in order the insurance to pay off the insured person would need to be "sick enough" - but with true medical disaster you would still primarily depend on the public system.

alondra · Post by **alondra** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:18 pm

Rip wrote:You can go to see a specialist in private clinic if you want - if you have an insurance it will pay the costs (after typically some deductible), otherwise you will pay them yourself (you get little, but not much, back from KELA).

With the insurance premiums you could of course pay occasional private doctor visit, so in order the insurance to pay off the insured person would need to be "sick enough" - but with true medical disaster you would still primarily depend on the public system.

Thanks for information...but I thought Finland has one the best health care systems? I am not Finnish so my opinion really don't count.

I am looking for a private insurance because I am used to something different. I don't want to wait for weeks to see a doctor, etc...and I want this insurance more for my son than for myself.

My question is which insurance( s)cover the most? I do not want to sign up for something and find out the Ops!

rinso · Post by **rinso** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:36 am

.but I thought Finland has one the best health care systems?

It's a system that treats everybody in the same way. Rich and poor.
Nobody suffers because lack of money. And in my book, that is good.
But if you want more, you have to pay for it yourself.

jas_rho · Post by **jas_rho** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:21 am

alondra wrote:
My question is which insurance( s)cover the most? I do not want to sign up for something and find out the Ops!

You have to contact each insurance company and ask for a quote and then go through all the info they give you. No two insurance companies are exactly alike and all offer slightly and not so slightly different things. We took private insurance for our twins when they were born and contacted at least 10 different places. Then drew out the main differences, looked at the things which we liked most compared with price and went with Tapiola. But that doesn't mean they are the best for what you want or need.

gamz · Post by **gamz** » Tue May 14, 2013 3:21 pm

Hei everyone,

I am an Au-pair in Finland and after 20 days here, I just learnt that Im not be able to go to a basic medical center because I am not an employee here but an Au-pair. If I ever want to see a doctor, I can only go to a private clinic and pay 70something euros.. Is that true? Does everyone know anything about healthcare for Au-pairs? I have allergies and next month I have to go to a doctor to get birth control pills because I have Polycystic Syndrome. 70 euros is really too much in my opinion and the family wont pay for my private clinic visits, I dont have enough money to go to a private clinic everytime I need medicine.. What else can I do? Do you have any suggestions? Any help/info at this point is very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Best.

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Tue May 14, 2013 7:30 pm

gamz wrote:Hei everyone,

I am an Au-pair in Finland and after 20 days here, I just learnt that Im not be able to go to a basic medical center because I am not an employee here but an Au-pair. If I ever want to see a doctor, I can only go to a private clinic and pay 70something euros.. Is that true? Does everyone know anything about healthcare for Au-pairs? I have allergies and next month I have to go to a doctor to get birth control pills because I have Polycystic Syndrome. 70 euros is really too much in my opinion and the family wont pay for my private clinic visits, I dont have enough money to go to a private clinic everytime I need medicine.. What else can I do? Do you have any suggestions? Any help/info at this point is very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Best.

Based on your other post, you are a Turkish citizen and got a Residence Permit for Finland as an Au Pair?

As part of the Residence Permit application, your host family had to submit a "Clarification on the health and accident insurance policy to be taken out".

What health insurance has your host family obtained for you?

Flossy1978 · Post by **Flossy1978** » Wed May 15, 2013 2:21 pm

Even if you go private, if it's something needing hospitalisation, you'll end up being sent to the public system.

I know there is at least one private hospital, but they aren't equipped to do a whole lot. I use to date a doctor who spent time learning and working at one.

There was the story of the woman who wanted this gastric bypass surgery. The public sector denied her the surgery (I think the reason was psychological, or maybe she wasn't fat enough or something), so she decided to go private. She went to the private hospital who did the surgery for her, but she got complications from it which the private hospital was unable to deal with, so she was sent to the public system to be taken care of. The complications cost the government 100's of 1000's of dollars (from what I recall). Last I heard the government or whatever city it was were suing the private hospital to reclaim the money.

So even with private insurance, you always end up in the public system. I think private insurance is good for minor things, like if you need to see a doctor, or some specialist for the more basic things. The doctors you can get in to see quickly and you can choose if you want to stay with one doctor as long as they are working for that company. If your kid is sick it's very easy to make an appointment that day to at least see a doctor, even if it's not your own, online. But more complicated matters requiring surgery, I think even cancer etc..... You end up having your papers forwarded to the public system. So you end up with the rest of the population anyway. The private health sector is limited here. There are no 'perks'. And no 'special' treatment.

And childrens' illnesses are always taken seriously I believe. My son was very ill just twice. Both times my ex took him to the public system, to the daily nurse who can then forward you on etc. You take a number and sit and wait. At least in the city I live. She can write sicknotes and whatnot. He was sent straight to the local hospital. We have some kind of small hospital in my city. He was seen straight away and taken care of so well. They forwarded him on straight to Hyvinkää hospital when they got the blood results. Again it was quick and he was so well taken care of. But maybe kids are treated more humanely and nicely than adults LOL.

gamz · Post by **gamz** » Wed May 15, 2013 6:15 pm

FloydFin wrote:
Trainees and au pairs from some other country with a social security agreement with Finland are normally not entitled to coverage under the Finnish social security system. However, if you work for over 4 months and meet the condition regarding the terms of employment, you may be covered by the Finnish health insurance system.

Other countries

Trainees and au pairs temporarily in Finland from some other country than an EU/EEA country, Switzerland or a country that has a social security agreement with Finland cannot obtain social security coverage in Finland. However, if you meet the condition regarding the terms of employment, you are considered to be a worker moving to Finland and may be covered by the Finnish health insurance system.

Thank you for the information. I found out after I posted my question that me being not able to go to a Finnish health center is because I am a non-EU citizen, not because I am an au-pair. That sucks so much

Still, thank you for replying. I appreciate it.

gamz · Post by **gamz** » Wed May 15, 2013 6:22 pm

Adrian42 wrote: Based on your other post, you are a Turkish citizen and got a Residence Permit for Finland as an Au Pair?

As part of the Residence Permit application, your host family had to submit a "Clarification on the health and accident insurance policy to be taken out".

What health insurance has your host family obtained for you?

I dont know if they submitted something like that or not. The family is insistent on not to enlighten me on this health matter, when I ask them questions about my healthcare they get angry. All they say is I'm only covered on emergency cases by some private insurance company (if i break some part on my body etc. this is the example they give) but still, that insurance still does not cover all, I guess, I still have to pay for all the cost for my emergency and I write the company if they find it ok, they will cover some amount or most of it, Im not sure because they are not telling me the details.
Thank you for your reply.

Lord of Manchester · Post by **Lord of Manchester** » Thu May 23, 2013 9:21 pm

Mehilainen !

obakesan · Post by **obakesan** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:26 pm

Hi

I'm not sure if I should add to this question or post an entirely new topic.

I'm currently living in Finland (in Joensuu actually) and I'm a little confused about the situaion with respect to health services that are available to me and what sorts of costs are likely.

I'm an Australian and also an Irish citizen. I've actually never lived in Ireland (only visited) and so as I understand it the reciprocal arrangement between Ireland and Finland would not bring anything to my table.

This leaves the arrangement between Australia and Finland for hospital services, however the information on Kela is a little unclear:

http://www.kela.fi/web/en/moving-to-fin ... -treatment

Australia
Persons who are resident in Australia are entitled to immediate medical treatment while staying temporarily in Finland. Coverage by the agreement must be proven by presenting an Australian passport or a passport of some other country, stating unlimited right of residence in Australia.

it also says:

If you are a resident of a Finnish municipality, you are entitled to treatment in the Finnish public healthcare system for a user fee.

so what it doesn't talk about what sorts of fees there are. I know very little (you may as well call it nothing) about the Finnish system as while I've lived here before (on and off) I've not actually made much use of it. My only experience was to go to a hospital in Kouvola (when I was living there) and I was treated for a few days with an appendix problem (which resolved itself without need for surgery. That was back in about 2009 and the details are quite unclear to me now. However I recall that I was treated under the Australian agreement and they just asked to see my Australian passport. At that time my wife (Finnish) handled most of the interaction with the hospital.

So what am I doing in Finland now? Well I'm now back in Finland for a while because I want to keep in touch with her family (she has passed away a few years ago) and I like to keep my relationships with some family (of hers) and friends of mine here as well.

Currently I'm not working, which may or may not change depending on how hard it is to find work here. I'm not in any sort of panic about it and have budgeted to not need to work for a year or so.

However I would not like to have my finances ruined by an unexpected health crisis (such as perhaps being hit by a car walking around town, or slipping and falling on some ice or ...) and so I'd like to try to understand the situation so that I can make decisions in the light of facts.

Thanks for any inputs you can provide.

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