JHL (07.12.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government has made a major decision to reform the social welfare and health care structure. From the beginning of 2019 Finland will be divided into 18 self-governing regions that will have responsibility for social welfare and health care in those regions.
The fate of employees still remains open, says JHL Chairperson Jarkko Eloranta. There are many questions that need to be clarified.
”The reformed social welfare and health care services will require strong and comprehensive public service production. For that we need the entire personnel”, Eloranta says. They will have to be able to work in a secure environment.
”Savings - which is the key goal behind the reform - cannot be at the expense of employees. This would be harmful to the reform in general.”
The new reform means that more than 200,000 employees will get a new employer. At the moment social welfare and health care is administered by 190 joint municipal authorities and local authorities.
It is imperative for a host of reasons, the most important of which are continuity, stability and efficiency, that all personnel should remain in the collective agreement for local authorities and that their pensions should continue to be handled by Keva, the public sector pension insurance institution.
One part of the coming reform bill will be the opening up of public health care to private actors. Jarkko Eloranta asks how is the Government going to guarantee freedom of choice as it says that the goal is equal services for all.
Everyone will not have the same possibilities to choose. For example place of domicile, health and knowledge matter. “It should not be the case that 'Money follows the customer' model becomes 'Money follows those well off' model.”
Public services must be broad and comprehensive. Those services guaranteed now, equally and for all, should not be cut, Eloranta stresses.
“That might lead to a higher personal share of costs and growing inequality. Wealthy people will buy from private providers the additional services they need.”
“If this were to happen exactly the opposite as was planned will be the result: health and social disparities will grow.”