Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland

This paper examined the distribution of health care financing in Finland in 1990-2012. In addition, the study provided insight to recent developments in the financing system, and analyzed various scenarios associated with the planned financing reform of 2020. The results indicated, that over the two...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jan Klavus, Pekka Rissanen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Oslo 2018-05-01
Series:Nordic Journal of Health Economics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uio.no/NJHE/article/view/5461
_version_ 1818644082062262272
author Jan Klavus
Pekka Rissanen
author_facet Jan Klavus
Pekka Rissanen
author_sort Jan Klavus
collection DOAJ
description This paper examined the distribution of health care financing in Finland in 1990-2012. In addition, the study provided insight to recent developments in the financing system, and analyzed various scenarios associated with the planned financing reform of 2020. The results indicated, that over the two decade study period overall progressivity first steadily decreased, and after turning regressive by 2006, returned to a progressive track leading to the highest level of measured progressivity by 2012. The distributional implications of the financing reform in the “stationary” scenario were shown to be significant; substituting revenue collected previously by local income taxes by an equiproportinate increase in state income tax revenue would increase the progressivity of overall financing to an unprecedentedly high level. In the “counterbalanced” scenario, where the state income tax scales were adjusted to correspond to the average income tax rate, the progressivity of overall financing increased more moderately. Finally, the “system-level” scenario indicated that taking into account recent changes in other financing sources outweighed the progressivity effect, and a slightly less progressive overall financing distribution would emerge in 2020 in comparison to 2012. The monetary effects of abolishing the public reimbursement scheme of private health services fees were shown to be rather small in magnitude, but the economic burden fell more heavily on low-income households.   Published: Online May 2018.
first_indexed 2024-12-17T00:09:11Z
format Article
id doaj.art-98f90c3a4b1e4466a4fd9cf4e3946274
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1892-9729
1892-9710
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-17T00:09:11Z
publishDate 2018-05-01
publisher University of Oslo
record_format Article
series Nordic Journal of Health Economics
spelling doaj.art-98f90c3a4b1e4466a4fd9cf4e39462742022-12-21T22:10:53ZengUniversity of OsloNordic Journal of Health Economics1892-97291892-97102018-05-016110.5617/njhe.5461Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in FinlandJan KlavusPekka RissanenThis paper examined the distribution of health care financing in Finland in 1990-2012. In addition, the study provided insight to recent developments in the financing system, and analyzed various scenarios associated with the planned financing reform of 2020. The results indicated, that over the two decade study period overall progressivity first steadily decreased, and after turning regressive by 2006, returned to a progressive track leading to the highest level of measured progressivity by 2012. The distributional implications of the financing reform in the “stationary” scenario were shown to be significant; substituting revenue collected previously by local income taxes by an equiproportinate increase in state income tax revenue would increase the progressivity of overall financing to an unprecedentedly high level. In the “counterbalanced” scenario, where the state income tax scales were adjusted to correspond to the average income tax rate, the progressivity of overall financing increased more moderately. Finally, the “system-level” scenario indicated that taking into account recent changes in other financing sources outweighed the progressivity effect, and a slightly less progressive overall financing distribution would emerge in 2020 in comparison to 2012. The monetary effects of abolishing the public reimbursement scheme of private health services fees were shown to be rather small in magnitude, but the economic burden fell more heavily on low-income households.   Published: Online May 2018.https://journals.uio.no/NJHE/article/view/5461health care financingprogressivityhealth financing reform
spellingShingle Jan Klavus
Pekka Rissanen
Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland
Nordic Journal of Health Economics
health care financing
progressivity
health financing reform
title Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland
title_full Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland
title_fullStr Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland
title_full_unstemmed Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland
title_short Evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in Finland
title_sort evidence and projections on the progressivity of health care financing in finland
topic health care financing
progressivity
health financing reform
url https://journals.uio.no/NJHE/article/view/5461
work_keys_str_mv AT janklavus evidenceandprojectionsontheprogressivityofhealthcarefinancinginfinland
AT pekkarissanen evidenceandprojectionsontheprogressivityofhealthcarefinancinginfinland