Any information on private health insurance?

Mrs J Stuart · Post by **Mrs J Stuart** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:13 am

Ive moved to finland last year in october and will be staying here in finland till next year in march. having applied for the health insurace through Kela as I thought being a temp residence of that length would be able to get such coverage, I was denied coverage as the health insurance I guess is only for permanent residence.
With that happening I was curious if anyone knows of any cheap/inexpensive private health insurance?
and or if my husbands health insirance since he has health insurance here would cover any medical insurance of me if we were to have a child?

thanks

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Kutittaa · Post by **Kutittaa** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:38 am

No such thing as 'private' health insurance that is 'cheap' especially for that length of time. Secondly, why not ask your husband obviously he knows more than us about the terms of his own insurance. As for it covering your child I don't think it would. He would have insurance for himself probably, which would not cover you at all let alone your child if you had one unless you amended the policy and had yourself and your child included (if and when you have one)...

They can't read minds you know... and I doubt you are paying the premiums for something that you don't have..

Logic · Post by **Logic** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:40 am

I remember going to if, tapiola and pohjola when I didn't have the kela card and got the most ridiculous answers, they asked for a kela card!!! I told them if I had one why on earth would I come to you then?!!! on top of that they told me when you get one then come back

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:41 am

Mrs J Stuart wrote:Ive moved to finland last year in october and will be staying here in finland till next year in march. having applied for the health insurace through Kela as I thought being a temp residence of that length would be able to get such coverage, I was denied coverage as the health insurance I guess is only for permanent residence.
With that happening I was curious if anyone knows of any cheap/inexpensive private health insurance?

You need to look for the international insurance providers (Use Google, I'd rather not take the "responsibility" of recommending one). To best of my knowledge Finnish insurance providers will not serve you.

and or if my husbands health insirance since he has health insurance here would cover any medical insurance of me if we were to have a child?

thanks

His KELA coverage does not cover any expenses you may have, if that is what he has. About his possible private insurance we of course can't tell. If you have such a plan, you better look closely at the terms and conditions of the insurance policy you plan to buy, especially the part how much time after purchasing the policy it takes before the insurance covers pregnancy related costs. You can take it for granted that it does not cover a pregnancy that is already a "pre-existing condition")

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:44 am

Logic wrote:I told them if I had one why on earth would I come to you then?!!!

For the reason (some) Finnish people buy private insurance: For additional comfort; the backbone of their health insurance is still the national system.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:49 pm

Mrs J Stuart wrote:Ive moved to finland last year in october

Where did you move from? If you moved from another EU country you can get coverage under a reciprocal cover arrangement. Basically you get treatment here and it is charged back to the health system in your country of origin. Sorry, I don't remember what the system is called (European Health Insurance Card or something) but I'm sure Google has a better memory than I do. Also you can search on this forum because it gets mentioned here occasionally.

tizlit · Post by **tizlit** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:23 am

To the best of my knowledge the European Health Insurance Card is only for emergencies, not a general health coverage.
You should have checked the health insurance matter in the country you left from.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:02 am

tizlit wrote:To the best of my knowledge the European Health Insurance Card is only for emergencies, not a general health coverage.

I don't know if that is true or not. It may be, I just don't know.
Thinking about it though, it may not matter too much. Most people (i.e. those in reasonable health with no ongoing health conditions), don't often require general health care and it is not particularly expensive in Finland so over the course of a year it could well cost less for private treatment than the cost of private health insurance. The main worry is how to cope with unusual/emergency situations, and if that is covered by the European card it provides a safety net for those cases. Worth checking out, anyway.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:13 am

DMC wrote:Thinking about it though, it may not matter too much. Most people (i.e. those in reasonable health with no ongoing health conditions), don't often require general health care and it is not particularly expensive in Finland so over the course of a year it could well cost less for private treatment than the cost of private health insurance.

General health care is done in one's "kotikunta" as is done everything on top of first aid (afaik). Thus if you break your leg, you probably will get the cast done in the place where your summer cottage is, but they won't remove it as you can hobble back to the hospital of your home town.

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:46 pm

To be clear.
European health insurance card gives you right, up to 3 months since you go out of your country, to receive imminent/sudden/accident healtcare what local would receive in rules and costs what local would have to pay. No you wont get hearthtransplant.
So if i go in spain and break my leg, i would be treated just like spanish and my leg is fixed if spanish leg is fixed. And i pay what spanish would pay.

Then there is different agreements, lets look finnish pensioners in spain.
They receive treatment just like spaniards do and spanish prices but its billed from finland. And i think its great. Cheap to us

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:07 pm

onkko wrote:And i think its great. Cheap to us

It is? The Spain gets to collect taxes from them and then charge us for the health care. I don't wish it to stop, but while the benefit is clear for the individuals involved I'm rather less sure of the national finaces.

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:12 am

Rip wrote:
onkko wrote:And i think its great. Cheap to us
It is? The Spain gets to collect taxes from them and then charge us for the health care. I don't wish it to stop, but while the benefit is clear for the individuals involved I'm rather less sure of the national finaces.

I think, i stress word think, that is good deal for finns. I dont know how taxes and such goes but if you do then please share.
I also think its good deal for others since they have money to use in local economy. Its of course out of finnish economy and i honestly dont know total impact.

gfunho · Post by **gfunho** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:45 am

Thy finns living in spain that are not working there don't pay direct taxes.

They pay the indirect taxes (IVA), equivalent of the finnish ALV, but you cannot forget that while they are there they use local services too (garbage collection, roads, beach cleaning, subsidized public transport).

If you mean the ones that live and work there, then they pay their direct taxes to Spain, but they are medically covered by the spanish social security (totally free, btw, and with a quality comparable to finnish public medical care). No bill is given back to Finland if they are working in Spain.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:03 am

gfunho wrote:Thy finns living in spain that are not working there don't pay direct taxes.

The taxation rights of Finnish (private sector) pensioner living permanently in Spain belong to Spain (Spain - Finland tax treaty). How much the taxes are in practice (Income level typically isn't very high) I do not know.
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