What do I pay for treatment in public healthcare?
You can receive information about the prices of public healthcare from the health centres and wellbeing services counties. If you have a municipality of residence in Finland, you will only have to pay a client fee for using the services. Your wellbeing services county will cover the actual costs of treatment.
If you do not have a municipality of residence in Finland, you will generally have to pay the costs of your treatment yourself, unless you present a certificate of entitlement to medical care, such as a European Health Insurance Card.
In some situations, you may be entitled to treatment at the client fee price, even if you do not have a municipality of residence in Finland or a certificate of entitlement to medical care. In cases of uncertainty, you can get help from Kela’s Centre for International Affairs.
If you have a municipality of residence in Finland, you can use all public healthcare services. The client fee charged for treatment is the same for all residents of the wellbeing services county regardless of their citizenship or the country from which they arrived in Finland.
You will usually receive an invoice for the client fees to your home address. As a rule, healthcare client fees are fixed. The client fee for public healthcare will not vary according to the actual cost of the service or treatment. The actual costs of services are substantially higher than the client fee you pay.
Client fees vary slightly from one wellbeing services county to another, but the maximum fees are established at national level (2024–2025):
Client fees at health centres:
The maximum one-time fee for a doctor’s appointment is EUR 23. A health centre may charge the fee up to three times per calendar year. Alternatively, an annual fee of up to EUR 46 per calendar year may be charged.
Basic fee per dental care visit (on top of the basic fee, there are separate procedure fees for dental treatments and examinations):
- up to EUR 11.30 for treatment provided by an oral hygienist
- up to EUR 14.60 for treatment provided by a dentist
- up to EUR 21.50 for treatment provided by a specialist dentist
Client fees at hospitals:
- Outpatient clinic fee: EUR 46 per visit
- Daily hospital charge: EUR 54.60 per day
- Day surgery procedure: EUR 150.80
- Daily psychiatric hospital charge: EUR 25.10 per day
- Serial therapy: EUR 12.80 per visit (serial therapy includes, e.g. continuous dialysis, radiotherapy or cytostatic therapy and medical rehabilitation)
Public health care can invoice an appointment that has been reserved but not used.
Free public healthcare services
Some public health services are free of charge. Below is a general list of services that are free of charge for people who have a municipality of residence in Finland or who are treated as municipal residents. You should always check with your health centre for more detailed information.
Primary healthcare, examinations, statements and emergency medical treatment
- Health examinations and health advice
- Nurse’s consultations in primary healthcare
- Medical certificates or statements
- Laboratory and X-ray examinations
- Emergency medical treatment
- Screenings
- School and student healthcare for all ages
Services for persons under the age of 18
- Outpatient care services
- Health centre and outpatient clinic visits
- Dental care
- Hospital inpatient care and upkeep when the number of treatment days exceeds seven per calendar year
- Cytostatic therapy and other similar treatment provided in series
- Continuous dialysis treatment
Mental health
- Mental health work performed in non-institutional healthcare in primary healthcare
- Psychiatric outpatient care
Sexual health, pregnancy and childbirth
- Birth control advice and other services promoting sexual health
- Maternity and child health clinic visits
- Screening, treatment and follow-up of pregnant substance abusers in maternity outpatient clinics targeted at them
- Services of SERI support centres for victims of sexual offences
Rehabilitation and assistive devices
- Rehabilitation counselling, examinations to determine rehabilitation needs and opportunities, adaptation training and rehabilitation guidance
- Assistive devices and their fitment, replacement and maintenance
Services free of charge for all
- Vaccinations according to the national vaccination programme, general voluntary vaccinations decided by the Government and mandatory vaccinations (such as COVID-19) provided for by Government decree
- Vaccinations for those in the target group of the vaccine in question.
- Medicines prescribed for the treatment of patients with a controlled communicable disease and for the investigation and treatment of HIV infections, chancre, gonorrhoea and sexually transmitted chlamydia infections, as well as for the treatment and (in practice HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis.
For generally hazardous communicable diseases:
- Examinations, treatment and medicines prescribed for the treatment
- Quarantine of a person found or reasonably suspected to have been exposed
- Isolation of infected patients or persons suspected to have been infected with reasonable cause
Payment ceiling for public healthcare client fees
There is a statutory maximum amount or payment ceiling for public healthcare client fees. After the payment ceiling has been reached, services that count towards it are free until the end of the calendar year. However, you may be charged an upkeep fee for short-term institutional care or institutional services even after the payment ceiling has been reached.
The payment ceiling amount is reviewed once every two years.
The following fees do not count towards the payment ceiling:
- Medical transport fees
- Fees for doctor’s certificates
- Fees for laboratory and imaging examinations made with a referral from a private doctor, and
- Fees for long-term institutional care.
You are not covered by the payment ceiling if you do not have a municipality of residence in Finland. However, if you are entitled to receive treatment in Finland on the basis of EU legislation or international conventions, you are covered by the payment ceiling.
If you are unhappy with the client fee you have received, you can claim for rectification
If you are unhappy with the client fee for public healthcare, you can claim for rectification of the fee from the wellbeing services county that provided the service. You will find instructions on how to claim for rectification attached to the invoice or decision. Submit your claim within 30 days of having received the decision.
If you are unhappy with the decision issued based on your claim, you can appeal to the Administrative Court. Read more about appealing against a decision of the authorities (oikeus.fi)