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Finland Development of the Health System
Since becoming an independent state in 1917, Finland
has
managed to deal with the "traditional" health problems.
The most
important cause of death in the nineteenth century,
pulmonary
tuberculosis, was brought under control by means of a
network of
tuberculosis hospitals built between the world wars.
Smallpox and
pneumonia have also ceased to be serious problems. With
the aid
of the vaccination law passed in 1952, the fight against
communicable diseases was largely won. In 1980, for
example,
there were no deaths from common diseases of this type. By
the
mid-1980s, no cases of diphtheria had been registered in
Finland
for several decades, and, with the exception of a
mini-epidemic
of seven cases in 1983-84, poliomyelitis also had
disappeared. An
emphasis on hospital construction in the 1950s and 1960s
brought
the ratio of hospital beds per capita up to international
norms,
and new medical training centers more than doubled the
number of
physicians between 1970 and the mid-1980s (see
table 11,
Appendix
A). The passage of the Sickness Insurance Act in 1963 and
frequent expansion of its coverage meant that good medical
care
was available to everyone. Later legislative measures,
such as
the Primary Health Care Act of 1972, or the Mental Health
Act of
1978, aimed at moving health care from large centers,
increasing
the amount of preventive treatment at smaller local
facilities,
and favoring out-patient care when possible. Finnish
health
authorities believed, even in the late 1980s, that care of
this
kind could be more flexible, humane, and effective and
could also
check cost increases. Despite this policy innovation,
however,
social expenditures on health had increased ten-fold in
real
terms since the early 1950s.
Data as of December 1988
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