Finns reveal the future of healthcare

Cost and convenience are top factors influencing care choices

Finland’s universal healthcare system provides tax-funded services for every citizen and charges a small flat fee per service. This is supplemented with wide occupational healthcare coverage. Hence Finns are cost-aware and prefer public health services over privately-paid health services. Short wait times to secure an appointment and convenient locations are major influences on patients’ decisions about where to seek medical treatment or services.

Which factors most influence your decisions about when and where to seek medical treatment or services?

Wait times and speed are critical to satisfaction

Wait times and speed of appointments are highly important to the satisfaction of younger and older Finns (63 percent of younger generations compared to 70 percent of older generations believe it to be a very important or critically important factor). Older Finns place greater importance on wait time and speed of appointments and responsiveness to follow-up questions.

Satisfaction across younger and older Finns hinges on:

Interest in virtual care is higher among patients with more complex needs

Virtual care has become an appealing channel for Finnish patients with more complex needs. For example, they would seek out cold/virus treatment (36 percent, compared to 25 percent of other patients with minor issues), physical injury treatment (16 percent, compared to 7 percent of other patients) and sexually transmitted disease screenings/treatment (17 percent compared to 12 percent of other patients).