Ehdotukset sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon rahoituksen kehittämiseksi

Julkaisuun sisältyvät, talousneuvoston sihteeristön tilaamat asiantuntijaraportit porautuvat sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon rahoituksen ajankohtaiseen problematiikkaan, muun muassa väestökehitykseen ja monikanavaisuuteen liittyviin haasteisiin. Professori Hannu Valtosen laatima raportti Terveydenhuollon rahoitusehdotusten arviointi vertailee julkisuudessa esillä olleita sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon vaihtoehtoisia kehitysmalleja. Raportti nostaa myös esiin potentiaalisesti tärkeitä näkökohtia, jotka ovat jääneet ehdotuksissa vähälle huomiolle. THL:n asiantuntijaryhmän raportti Sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon rahoituksen kehittäminen: Kohti yksikanavaista alueellista järjestäjä-rahoittajaa konkretisoi ja kehittää edelleen yhtä vertailussa mukana ollutta mallia. Raportti sisältää myös kuvauksen nykyisen rahoitusjärjestelmän pääpiirteistä sekä järjestelmien kansainvälistä vertailua

Promoting prevention with economic arguments – The case of Finnish occupational health services

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both social and ethical arguments have been used to support preventive occupational health services (OHS). During the 1990s it became more common to support political argumentation for occupational health and safety by converting the consequences of ill health at work into monetary units. In addition, OHS has been promoted as a profitable investment for companies, and this aspect has been used by OHS providers in their marketing.</p> <p>Our intention was to study whether preventive occupational health services positively influence a company's economic performance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We combined the financial statements provided by Statistics Finland and employers' reimbursement applications for occupational health services (OHS) costs to the Social Insurance Institution. The data covered the years 1997, 1999 and 2001 and over 6000 companies. We applied linear regression analysis to assess whether preventive OHS had had a positive influence on the companies' economic performance after two or four years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Resources invested in preventive OHS were not positively related to a company's economic performance. In fact, the total cost of preventive OHS per turnover was negatively correlated to economic performance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Even if OHS has no effect on the economic performance of companies, it may have other effects more specific to OHS. Therefore, we recommend that the evaluation of prevention in OHS should move towards outcome measures, such as sickness absence, disability pension and productivity, when applicable, both in occupational health service research and in practice at workplaces.</p

Examining Health Inequalities in Latvia : A Decade of Association between Socioeconomic Position and Perceived Health Status

Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Anželika Berķe-Berga et al.The relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and population health is contextual. This study identifies the determinants of SEP producing health inequalities in the Latvian population. We also estimate the proportional contribution of different socioeconomic strata- (SES-) related determinants in Latvian health inequalities and measure the changes in the relative contributions of such determinants over the period 2005-2015. Using the household survey data (2005-2015), we construct a principal component analysis based SES index. A regression-based concentration index (CI) is our measure of health inequality to examine the distribution of perceived health status. Finally, we identify and estimate the contribution of predictors of health inequalities by decomposing CI with Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. SES-related health inequalities have declined from 2005 (CI: 0.201) to 2015 (CI: 0.137) in Latvia - better-off Latvians enjoyed better perceived health during that period. The proportional contributions of education and working status have increased in 2015 compared to 2005. Although we have generated the first evidence to suggest policy relevant measures in addressing Latvian health inequalities, our decomposition method explains the extent of variation in perceived health instead of covariance between health and SEP.publishersversionPeer reviewe