Regional elections Health center fees are now being debated in Western Uusimaa – “Unused health center times will be expensive”

The parties are most divided by the payment for health services and the financing of welfare areas.

Travel bar in the future to a larger sote center or will my local health status be maintained? Are mental health services improving? How will my aging parent be treated in the coming years?

Such questions are being considered by many Westerners as regional elections approach day by day. The parties promise a lot of the same things with each other, but there are also differences.

This story examines how the positions of the candidates in Western Uusimaa are divided by party on ten key issues concerning the regional elections. The information is from On the HS regional election machine. The welfare area of ​​Western Uusimaa consists of Espoo, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, Siuntio, Inkoo, Raseborg, Hanko, Lohja, VIhti and Karkkila.

One the burning issues of the sote reform concern where services will be provided in the future. Should services be concentrated in larger sote centers? Or should services be found as close as possible to residents, even if it raises costs?

Compared to the whole of Finland, Western Uusimaa is a densely populated area, but it can also accommodate the countryside. The municipalities in the area are different: Espoo, with more than 270,000 inhabitants, can accommodate Western Uusimaa, but Inkoo, which has more than 5,000 inhabitants.

In Western Uusimaa, most parties are reasonably neutral on the issue of local services.

With the exception of the Greens and the Coalition Party, the parties are more divergent than they agree with the statement: “It is more important to create centralized social and health services that bring together different services under the same roof than to try to keep services as close as possible.”

Coalition and the Greens are only slightly on the other side of the line, that is, they are a little more positive about setting up larger Sote units.

Chairman of the Espoo City Council, Coalition Party Henrik Vuornos is in favor of concentrating the SOTE units on the basis of its election election response.

“It makes sense to bring together social and health services in units that are large enough to provide quality and cost-effective services. For example, health centers have benefited significantly from bringing physiotherapy, mental health and specialist services under the same roof. one can reduce the bounce from one point to another, “Vuornos writes.

Last there has been a lot of talk about how to cope with health care when there is a shortage of caregivers across the country. Finland is aging at a rapid pace, with nursing and elderly services the planned reforms have been calculated to further increase the need for carers.

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The number of Finns of working age is forecast to decrease in the coming decades, so attracting foreign carers to Finland is often proposed as one solution to the shortage of nurses. It is estimated that by 2030, Finland would need up to tens of thousands of nurses from abroad.

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In Western Uusimaa, almost all parties believe that the entry of foreign workers to work in Finland must be facilitated.

Only one party against the rake: Basic Finns oppose the proposal.

Chairman of the party, from Kirkkonummi Riikka Purra strongly opposes the facilitation of access to employment for foreign carers. In his election machine response, Purra does not directly justify why the recruitment of foreign caregivers should not be facilitated, but suggests other ways to alleviate the labor shortage.

“The salary is not strange in relation to the workload. The primary and most important action to address the problems in the care sector is to increase resources. Better management is also needed, as well as smoother processes and the elimination of unnecessary work, but without additional resources this will not be possible. Those who have left the sector must be able to be attracted back. “

Read more: Caregivers should be attracted to work for higher pay, say candidates from all parties on the election machine – Is this realistic?

The parties there are clear differences between the two when asked whether the cost of public health services is a good thing. The Coalition Party is the strongest defender of the charges, while the Left Alliance is the strongest. With the exception of the Left Alliance and the SDP, payments are a good thing for all other parties.

Espoo Left City Councilor and former Member of Parliament Kari Uotila strongly disagrees with the argument.

“Payments burden the low-income people the most and often lead to the avoidance of services and the worsening of the disease and its subsequent costs,” Uotila writes in his election election response.

Member of the Coalition Party Pia Kauma in turn, considers payments to be a good thing.

“The fact that people have to pay even a little for their service usually makes them demand better service and also appreciate it. Take, for example, unused health center times, which become costly for taxpayers. If a visit to a health center always becomes a fall even when you haven’t arrived at the reception, people may also cancel their times on time. At the same time, there must be free access for, for example, low-income pensioners and the unemployed. ”

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Regional councils decide on customer fees, and the fees must be the same throughout the welfare area. The law and regulations set maximum fees, and some services must be provided free of charge.

In the regional elections there are some issues on which the parties seem to be very much in agreement. Mental health is one of them: In Western Uusimaa, all parties want an increase in the share of health care spending on the prevention and treatment of mental health problems.

Better pay for caregivers will also get the green light from all parties. It is no surprise, especially during the corona pandemic, the shortage of nurses has become very visible and salaries have been much discussed.

Often, however, in political debates, the issue of wages reverts to a labor market issue. Politicians often claim that in Finland wage negotiations are agreed between the social partners, and politicians cannot dictate the level of wages.

Member of the Demar Maria Guzeninan however, the situation is so critical that decisions will be needed soon.

“Even though we policy makers are downright told to stay out of the wage debate, the shortage of nurses is already in crisis and solutions are urgently needed. The functioning of a welfare society depends on whether we have skilled people doing their invaluable work for the functioning of society. If there is no sustainable solution to this, the future of the welfare state cannot be guaranteed either, ”Guzenina writes in an election machine.

Like Today, municipalities, and in the future also welfare areas, can decide whether to introduce a service voucher. The service voucher can be used, for example, to obtain services from private providers of social and health services, which the public authorities are obliged to organize.

All parties, with the exception of the Left Alliance, are in favor of using a service voucher. Service vouchers are often defended on the grounds that the customer has a choice and that the use of private services can alleviate congestion on the public side.

Opponents, on the other hand, often base their position on the importance of keeping basic services organized and managed by the public sector.

Organizing child welfare services, on the other hand, divides parties more. Of the current government parties, all but the RKP want to transfer the maintenance of child welfare facilities to the public side.

About 80 percent of child welfare facilities, according to THL, were run by private companies in 2018. As late as the late 1980s, private individuals accounted for less than a quarter.

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“In many cases, cooperation between the public sector, companies and organizations produces good results. On the other hand, it requires effective supervision. It is essential to ensure that the welfare area sits in the driver’s seat, ”says the Green MP Saara Hyrkkö writes in his election machine response.

Read more: Highly privatized child welfare institutions share the views of regional election candidates

One The big issue for the coming decades is the care of the elderly, as the number of elderly people in Finland is growing strongly. Traditional long-term institutional care for the elderly has declined in recent years, with the emphasis on living at home being emphasized.

Almost all parties are somewhat in favor of further increasing the share of home care. Only the Left Alliance takes a slightly more negative side of the issue.

What about then the distribution of money? Under the Sote reform, tax money is transferred to the state, from where it is distributed to welfare areas. In this distribution, Länsi-Uusimaa has been calculated to be one of the losers, ie to lose money in the future.

Read more: Majority of regional election candidates approve of allocating money to less prosperous regions – Coalition Party’s orphan strongly disagrees

The idea is to move the money to areas where the population is older and sicker. As an election machine issue, this issue is rather a matter of value, as regional commissioners cannot directly influence it.

The Coalition Party is most critical of the distribution of money. Of the governing parties, the system is most strongly defended by the Left Alliance and the Center, the SDP and the Greens are in the middle stages.

Neither the provincial tax is not at the discretion of the regional commissioners. However, the candidates ‘responses indicate the parties’ attitudes.

The tax is about giving welfare areas the right to tax the people who live in their area. The effect of the tax would vary considerably depending on the place of residence. In economically and demographically disadvantaged provinces, there should be pressure to raise taxes.

On the other hand, the introduction of a provincial tax created an incentive for provinces to curb sote costs.

The question divides the governing parties. In Western Uusimaa, the tax is supported by the Left Alliance, the Greens and the SDP and opposed by the Center and the RKP. The sharpest opposition to the tax is the opposition coalition.

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