Healthcare in Estonia

Healthcare in Estonia is supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs and funded by general taxation through the National Health Service.

The single buyer and payment method is the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (Eesti Haigekassa), which pays all contracted providers.

The Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) is an independent body that acts as the sole purchaser of medical care.

Contributions are proportional to employment and salaries, but non-contributing citizens represent almost half of the insured people.

[3] Estonia was the first country in the world that has implemented a nationwide EHR system, registering virtually all residents' medical history from birth to death.

[4] Estonia used its existing digital public service software known as X-Road to create the EHR network.

Estonia's system was overseen by the Ministry of Social Affairs until the creation of the Estonian e-Health Foundation.

It allows doctors to create an electronic prescription that is then added to a patient's health card and accessed at a pharmacy to receive the medicine they may require.

[9] Upon giving birth, the Estonian government grants one of the parents 100% of their former salary for 18 months, plus 320 Euros of one-time support per child.

[12] Despite considerable variation and fluctuations in the support to the family with children, the majority of Estonian families do not face great hardships and the State of The World's Mothers 2011 report ranked Estonia as the 18th best country in the world to be a mother, ahead of countries like Canada and the United States.