Opinion|Reader’s opinion
It is a very bad decision to schedule the cuts at a time of great administrative change.
Government announced on February 16 that it would cut Kela benefits for private medical care ahead of schedule. This is justified by the fact that the new war areas will start in early 2023 and there is a desire to re-channel funding.
At the end of 2021, the parliamentary working group suggested that compensation cuts should not be made at the same time as the historic major change in health care came into force. It is to be expected that the operation of the Sote areas will only stabilize over time and that there will be many challenges and capacity problems in the transition phase.
Many medical specialties struggle with treatment queues. With eye diseases, queues have lengthened, and the care debt caused by the coronavirus pandemic alone will be closed for a long time to come. Thanks to Kela benefits, some citizens have taken care of their ailments privately. With regard to eye diseases, Kela-reimbursed visits are the largest of the specialties, about 500,000 per year. With reimbursement cuts, it is expected that demand for public health care will clearly increase.
It is a very bad decision to schedule the cuts at a time of great administrative change. A better solution would be to follow the proposal of the parliamentary working group and to re-examine the situation once the Sote areas have stabilized. Cutting compensation reels right now is an unpleasant gift for tomorrow’s new sote areas.
Mika Harju
Assistant Professor, Ophthalmologist
Chairman of the Finnish Ophthalmologists Association
Marko Määttä
docent, ophthalmologist
Chairman of the Ophthalmologists Department of the Finnish Medical Association
Reader opinions are speeches written by HS readers, selected and delivered by HS’s editorial staff. You can leave a comment or read the principles of writing at www.hs.fi/kirjtamielipidekirjoitus/.
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