In first half-year, the Health Insurance Fund funded health services for over 481 million euros

In the first half-year of 2018, the Health Insurance Fund funded health services for over 481 million euros, which was 71 million euros more year on year.

“As at the end of July, the Health Insurance Fund has made positive results and channelled more funds to medical care,” said Pille Banhard, Member of the Management Board of the Health Insurance Fund.

In the first half-year, specialised medical care was used by 590,000 people whose treatment costs amounted to a total of nearly 350 million euros for us. All in all, specialist doctors had nearly 2.1 million appointments and performed over 74,000 surgeries.

The goal for 2018 is to reduce the waiting times for joint replacement and cataract surgeries. Due to additional funding from the state budget, people have been able to undergo surgeries faster – in the first half-year, doctors performed 2,300 cataract and nearly 330 knee and hip replacement surgeries more than in the same period last year.  

People have also visited their family physicians with their health problems more often than before. In the first half of this year, family physicians were visited by 16,200 more people than in the same period last year. A total of 861,000 people turned to their family physicians for help. In total, we funded primary health care in the amount of 61.3 million euros, or 10% more than in the same period a year ago. In half the year, medical staff replied to nearly 135,000 phone calls made to the 24-hour medical telephone helpline phone 1220.

In the first six months of the year, nursing care was used in hospitals and at home by a total of nearly 12,000 people, or 2% more than in the same period last year. This half-year, we funded nursing care in the amount of 17.2 million euros and nursing care funding increased by 8%.

In the first six months of the year, dental care and orthodontic services were funded by the Health Insurance Fund for more than 112,000 children. Adult dental care benefit was used by 190,000 people and denture benefit by nearly 20,000 people. In the first half-year of 2018, we funded dental care services for over 25 million euros, which is a third more compared to the same period last year.

• Read more: First half-year report of 2018