Health services without kela card

utpala2011 · Post by **utpala2011** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:06 pm

hello,

We moved to Finland about 2 months back. We are a family of three, mother, father and a toddler aged 21 month. Me and my husband have post-doctoral contracts, current contract means one year stay in finland. We have been in France before for 4 years. Recently we have got the reply from kela that my child will not be covered by for her health (me and my husband, we are covered due to our work contracts though). We had to visit a private doctor for her once after our arrival for ear infection and fever which has cost us ~150 euros, doctor consultation itself was 105 euros.

I want to know the ways of getting health services like doctor/specialist consultation etc for ear infection, fever without a kela card at affordable price. With a toddler who goes to the day-care, it is absolutely un-imaginable to stay without health coverage. Can anybody please tell me the alternatives to affordable and reliable health services.

Thanks in advance for responses!

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Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:22 pm

Is your toddler still covered by the French health insurance?

utpala2011 · Post by **utpala2011** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:33 pm

no, not anymore. Our residence permits have expired with the end of our work contracts there.

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:44 pm

First thing on permits should be "can you support yourself", you cant obviously.
So i would say that your permits are revoked and please return to your country.

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:46 pm

The only option I see for getting health care coverage for your toddler is that one of you two gets a contract extension for a second year.

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:50 pm

onkko wrote:First thing on permits should be "can you support yourself", you cant obviously.

WTF?

They clearly can, they have two jobs (I'd guess even full-time) in Finland.

They are of value for Finland - quite the opposite to the non-working Finnish drunks who get nourished by tax money while doing nothing.

utpala2011 · Post by **utpala2011** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:55 pm

We are given residence permits in Finland based on our work contract which meets the salary requirement for a family of 3 and to add that we are well qualified but there would be some who might think otherwise, that is not my problem anyway and I don't want to digress from my query.

Nevertheless, I don't really consider an amount of 150 euros for a simple doctor visit with fever due to ear infection a 'normal' cost. My question was not about food or shelter, but was about healthcare. I would appreciate if the responses are rather pertinent to the question. I can understand the frustration due to immigrants (if any), but that would call for another debate which is not relevant to the topic of this thread. Thanks!

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 3:11 pm

anna.g wrote:
utpala2011 wrote:I want to know the ways of getting health services like doctor/specialist consultation etc for ear infection, fever without a kela card at affordable price.
Check this one out:
http://www.hel.fi/hki/Terke/en/Patient+ ... travellers

If you have an EU passport + can prove your residence, your local Terveysasema will treat you.

She already said they aren't.

I also think the information on that website is slightly incorrect when it says The citizenship of the EU or an EEA country is proved by an European Health Insurance Card.:

You get a European Health Insurance Card when you are a member of a EU/EEA/Swiss public health care system, which is not the same as being a citizen of that country. E.g. Kela might not give a European Health Insurance Card (and therefore pay the bills) to a Finnish citizen who has never lived in Finland.

And a German citizen living in Germany who is a member of a private health insurance (opposed to being a member of a German public health insurance) also won't get a European Health Insurance Card - he gets a full bill from the Finnish doctor, and gets the money back from his German health insurance.

Liam1 · Post by **Liam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 4:12 pm

I'm afraid that the private care is quite expensive here. EUR 105 sounded a lot to me when I originally came here, but it no longer feels that much. E.g. Last week our daughter who is borderline asthmatic went to the private child clinic in Tapiola and the bill was EUR 250 + EUR 40 for medicine (which I think was KELA subsidised).

My experience is that they "augment" the consultation fee with a few tests and that is how things add up. If you mean that the doc did no test (blood/urine) so had a look at your toddler for 15 min and diagnosed, then agree EUR 105 is double the cost of a consultation only so like Cory says look around.

Have you looked into private health insurance? Many Finns have this for their children.

Good Luck

Hämeen Hitain · Post by **Hämeen Hitain** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 4:22 pm

Finnish insurance companies require that the child is already in Kela system

utpala2011 · Post by **utpala2011** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:23 pm

Her ear was leaking nasty fluid (she had cold for 3 days before that) and also had fever and kept crying. We took her to the doctor (pediatrician) and she cleaned the ear and prescribed antibiotics and some other medicines. And she might need a visit again as she is having cold again. I am ready to take some health insurance if its 50-60 euros per month to cover pediatrician and ENT specialist. She might need this as at this age she seems to have freqent cold caught from the day-care and otitis. But I haven't been able to find any relevant info, I might have to search again.

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:31 pm

You actually miss the most serious issue:

Even if you have to pay a few hundred Euro per month for doctor bills that might be annoying, but shouldn't cause you serious troubles.

The actual problem is:
What happens if your child gets a serious illness or has an accident?
In the worst case, you might end up with several ten thousand Euro costs for the treatment of your child.

utpala2011 · Post by **utpala2011** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:57 am

Yes, I did realize these risks. I think it was indeed a very unwise and a rather stupid decision to come here without a guarantee towards health coverage for a one year contract. I am told that these health services are free for refugees, but since I work to earn my living, and in that sense "have good resources to pay for health services" as put by a Finnish lady in my laboratory. With every passing day I feel rather strong to go back, some good news I guess for some like the user onkko who responded here.

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 11:47 am

utpala2011 wrote:I am told that these health services are free for refugees,

A refugee is moving permanently to Finland.
(And I have much more respect for someone who survived growing up in Somalia, than for someone who got all chances by being born in Finland and then spends his whole life receiving money from Kela and drinking alcohol.)

Liam1 · Post by **Liam1** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:39 pm

Adrian has a point about more serious and hence expensive illnesses.
It is a shame if there is no way to insure against this and that there is a "blind spot" where honest hard working people cannot be protected due to the length of stay (too long for aninsurance from country of residence, too short to qualify for Kela).
I hope that you sort something out..

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