Finland has a long tradition of supporting social programs
that promote equality and the welfare state.
The healthcare system is financed mainly by taxation. Everyone
is insured against illness. Each of Finland's five provinces
is run by a provincial government that monitors the provision of
social welfare and health care. However, the municipalities
actually provide the services and regulate medical equipment
and regionalization of services. During the early 1990s, gross
domestic product
(GDP) fell dramatically, and healthcare expenditure rose to 9.4% of
GDP. Due to the economy's rapid recovery, the share of
healthcare expenditure has again decreased and now matches
the average level of OECD countries of approximately 7.7 %. The
former Finnish method of
central planning and norm setting has guaranteed a fairly
uniform development of necessary services throughout the
country and free or low-cost access. Tight central planning
did not, however, create incentives to contain costs.
Therefore, in the beginning of the 1990s, decision-making power
was largely decentralized to the municipalities, and the
principles of state subsidies were reformed. In 1995, the
Finnish Office for Health Care Technology Assessment (FinOHTA)
was set up as a new unit of the National Research and
Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES). FinOHTA is intended
to function as a national central body for advancing
HTA-related work in Finland, with the ultimate goal of promoting
the effectiveness and efficiency of Finnish health care. At
present, the importance of HTA is widely recognized in Finland,
especially in the face of rising healthcare costs.