Health financing in Estonia: situation and challenges in 2005 (2015)

This case study aims to offer a systematic overview of the health financing system in Estonia to serve as a basis for comprehensive discussions. It uses a framework for country-level analysis of health care financing arrangements that distinguishes the three subfunctions all systems perform:

• collecting revenue that is ultimately used to purchase health services;

• pooling these funds (how the financial flows are organized); and

• purchasing, which describes the interaction between the intermediaries who manage the prepaid and pooled funds and those who deliver the services.

The executive summary gives an overview of the health financing system, underlines the challenges it faces and suggests possible ways to move forward. The rest of the document is organized in three sections that describe in turn how each health financing function was organized in Estonia in early 2005.