Estonian health system question to European members

[mr friendly guy]

So here is the situation.

I am currently working in a spinal rehab job, leave relieving for 4 weeks total. We have a new patient, an Estonian national who injured his spine. I won't go into how he did it, but suffice to say he can no longer walk, and he has limited power in his upper limbs. On the plus side he is off the ventilator.

Like many overseas patients I see, THEY DON'T HAVE INSURANCE.

So broadly speaking, he will end up being hit with a ginormous bill and which he will never pay when he goes back, and so in return the country never lets him back into Australia; or he somehow pays the bill off.

As a general rule, we aim to eventually get him fit enough to hop onto the plane back to Estonia. This will likely take some weeks, but the sooner we do that, the smaller the bill he ends up holding.

So my question is, how is the Estonian health system for coverage? He tells me they have some sort of national insurance scheme. Does that mean they will look after any of their citizens, or is their a variation in the insurance, ie some insurance covers more than others. While it is "not our problem" what happens back in his home country, I do feel sorry if we send him home without any sort of support. Heck, maybe we could even liase with a hospital back there to continue his care.

[Forgothrax]

A quick Google search turns up this website.

[Edi]

Yes, Estonia has a national health care system, so he should receive some care in his home country. One of the things your hospital should do is contact the Estonian embassy in Australia and discuss the case with them in terms of compensation to the hospital and so forth.

Forgothrax's link is the correct one and this sub-page gives an overview of the system. I don't know the details of the Estonian system, other than that they set it up for a fraction of the cost and time that it would have taken in Finland and their healthcare related IT systems are topnotch compared to ours (because of the lack of bureaucratic blocks and other crap that we've had for decades).

Contacting the Estonian embassy is the best option, because it is part of their job to look after Estonian citizens in cases of emergencies and this certainly qualifies.

[Irbis]

So my question is, how is the Estonian health system for coverage? He tells me they have some sort of national insurance scheme. Does that mean they will look after any of their citizens, or is their a variation in the insurance, ie some insurance covers more than others. While it is "not our problem" what happens back in his home country, I do feel sorry if we send him home without any sort of support. Heck, maybe we could even liase with a hospital back there to continue his care.

Generally speaking about post-communist countries health insurance: it's national, yes, and equal for everyone, unless someone has private insurance (which are not popular due to price for everyone but youngest and most wealthy). Though, national often means just that - coverage for payments incurred within your own borders.

The reason for it is twofold - first, up until recently, these countries had little to no agreements for mutual honouring of insurances without special papers with each other, much less western countries. New EU members from 2004 only recently were integrated into EU wide net of agreements - so no wonder Australia is kind of not on top of the list. Estonians are wannabe Nordics, they don't pay much attention to Anglosphere countries.

Second, up until 5 years ago, prices in medical care were low, in part due to low wages of doctors and nurses. Your national insurance often had clause giving top payment comfortably covering everything done in country compared to "yeah, no" reply you usually get mentioning western prices. This however quickly equalizes now due to 'doctor drain' (Polish ones going to Germany, German ones to Switzerland...) and common EU medicine market so it ceased to be a big factor now.

[tim31]

Contacting the Estonian embassy is the best option, because it is part of their job to look after Estonian citizens in cases of emergencies and this certainly qualifies.

Obviously if you're planning to do anything like this, do it via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

[Argosh]

Found the guy mentioned in the news, its in Estonian.