Healthcare in Estonia

Healthcare in Estonia is supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs. It is paid for by general taxation.

Estonia's health care system is based on compulsory insurance. All the providers of health services are businesses governed by private law. The Estonian Health Insurance Fund pays for all the public healthcare. It takes 13% of the employee's social tax.

The majority of general practitioners work for themselves, privately owned businesses, or local governments. Most of the hospitals are either created by the government, municipalities, or other public organizations, or they are limited businesses owned by the local government. If a hospital has a contract with the Fund, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund will pay for necessary treatments received in a private hospital.

An insured person must be either a permanent resident or a legal resident who pays the social tax. Insured people all get the healthcare they need. It does not matter how much they have paid. About 95% of the people are covered.

All health care providers in Estonia must give the health information about their patients to the digital health information system. Estonia's electronic record system is thought to be very good. It started in 1998 - before most other countries. From 2008 it covered the whole country. It is used by both hospitals and GPs. Patients can see all their own records and control who else sees them. Prescriptions are almost all electronic.