We are about to reform healthcare in Finland because, according to the present government, we we need to reduce costs and make it more productive.
Yes, we should always try to improve productivity, but should healthcare costs be cut below what is needed?
These latest figures on relative healthcare costs tell another story. The above table shows that Finland actually has the lowest healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP of all the countries that have the same living standards or better.
In fact, the difference is so big that we should actually be considering to increase expenditure for better care for the elderly and sick. There are 2 reasons for this:
- Finland is currently facing a huge increase in the share of an aging population, like most of Europe, and
- We rank along with the UK as having the highest level of obesity at 25% of the population compared with Denmark and Sweden who are at 12% and 15% respectively.
