Health care
The
health care in Finland is paid of taxes, while in Switzerland it is paid by
private insurances. The Finnish system makes people more equal, everyone has
the same rights to visit a doctor.
The health care in Finland
It
includes health education, care during pregnancy, prevention counselling and
general physical examinations. Also the dental treatment is covered. That means
that the instruction and prevention of dental care is included, as well as the
dental examinations and treatments regardless the age of the patients.
The
system differs in more than one part. The school and student healthcare for
example include sight and hearing examinations which are performed by
specialists, as well as laboratory, x-ray and other examinations ordered by
them. Of course psychiatric and psychological examinations are also covered.
In
addition the system requires for example breast cancer screenings for all women
between the age of 50 – 59, and cerval cancer between 30 and 60.
The
timeframes on access to treatment can often be assessed on the phone, but if
the treatment needs assessment requires that the patient visits the health care
centre, the appointment time has to be available within three working days.
The health care in Switzerland
As
already mentioned, in Switzerland ist obligatory to have a basic health care
insurance. In addition it is up to everyone itself to pay for an extra insurance
which contains for example Chinese medicine, homeopathy, dentists, optometrists,
and so on.
Due
to everyone is insured for basic health problems, the insurance companies
(which are not own by the state) have to pay 90% of the cost. Unfortunately the
person who is ill has to pay the other 10 per cents.
Furthermore
the Swiss health care system lets its clients decide by their own how much
money they want to spend for the insurance per month. That means that every
person has to pay an amount of money for their health care costs every year
(franchise). The insurance costs per month are dependent on the amount of the
money they want to spend by their own.
To
give an idea how it works a short example:
I
decide to pay the first 500 SFR costs for health care by myself. Every
additional cost is now covered by the insurance company, which means that I
just have to pay 10 per cent of every bill. Due to my low franchise I have to
pay more for the insurance per month as for example a person who has a 2000 SFR
franchise.
Comparison
The
system in Switzerland allows a personal decision on how much money each person
will spend and how much risk they want to take. Of course, if the individual is
never ill, has a 2000 SFR franchise and pays due to that fact just a little
amount of money for the insurance per month, he / she can save a lot of money.
But if unfortunately something bad happened, this person has to pay the first
2000 SFR by its own.
That
is why the three of us prefer the Finnish health care system. Everyone has the
same rights and the same health care possibilities. There are no risks to take
and no one has to pay every month a separate amount of money for the health
care insurance.
