Health fund targets balanced budget by 2030

Estonia’s Health Insurance Fund expects next year’s expenditure to reach nearly 2.7 billion euros, while its deficit is forecast to narrow to 44 million euros, ERR reported. The fund aims to gradually balance its budget by 2030.

The fund’s council approved its draft budget for next year on Friday, allowing it to be submitted for negotiations on the state budget.

Investments across Estonia’s healthcare system are expected to increase by about 90 million euros next year. The fund is targeting a reduction in its deficit from nearly 90 million euros this year to 44 million euros.

Social Affairs Minister Karmen Joller, who chairs the fund’s council, said the goal for the coming years was to restore the fund’s financial sustainability while maintaining access to necessary healthcare services.

“My goal is to bring the Health Insurance Fund out of its financial crisis and return its budget to a sustainable path,” Joller said, adding that the fund could even achieve a surplus by 2030.

Joller said difficult choices would be needed to balance the budget, but that access to essential healthcare services must not be reduced. Instead, treatment pathways should be made smoother.

She said balancing the budget was realistic if already launched reforms were implemented, including greater use of digital, data-based and artificial intelligence solutions, wider use of e-consultations, and stronger primary care and prevention.

Siiri Lahe, chair of the Health Insurance Fund’s management board, said the budget for the next four years had been prepared on the principle that every euro directed to healthcare should create the greatest possible value for people’s health.

Lahe said the fund would invest in healthcare according to available resources and would need to balance different needs. She added that funding should be linked more closely to the quality and outcomes of treatment.

The fund’s development plan aims to increase the number of years people in Estonia live in good health. Lahe said the fund would focus on ensuring that every euro directed to healthcare supports that goal.

According to Lahe, the system would be organised more efficiently, with freed-up resources directed towards funding new services and medicines. The fund’s aim is to ensure that the quality and accessibility of services do not decline and that people receive necessary help at the right time and in the right place.

The fund’s four-year forecast continues to account for increases in healthcare workers’ wages, as average wages in Estonia are also expected to rise. However, the current financial forecast postpones the planned update to the wage component included in service prices by nine months. The change will therefore take effect on January 1, 2028, rather than April 1 next year.

The Health Insurance Fund stressed that this was a budgeting assumption and that discussions on the decision were still under way. Minimum wage levels for healthcare workers will be agreed in collective bargaining between trade unions and employers.

According to the OECD, healthcare expenditure in Estonia accounts for 7.5 percent of gross domestic product, compared with just under 10 percent on average in the European Union.