Responding to the challenge of financial sustainability in Estonia's health system – Executive Summary (2010)

With the aim of supporting a financially sustainable, high-performing health system, this report assesses health financing policy in Estonia. It looks at how well-placed current financing policy is to enable goal attainment in the medium-to-long term (to 2030) and identifies ways to strengthen financing policy.

The report is the result of a year-long process of stakeholder consultations and expert analysis initiated by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2009 in partnership with the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional  Office for Europe. It adds to previous analyses of the Estonian health system in three ways.

• First, it joins an assessment of current health financing policy in the context of broader macroeconomic concerns with projections of health sector revenue and expenditure trends.
• Second, the projections go beyond existing work by drawing on the most recent data and accounting for changes in utilization patterns.
• Third, the report’s analysis and recommendations are not based on technical assessment alone but also on the views and values of health system actors and political representatives as expressed in interviews and workshops in Estonia.