Social welfare and health care services

The municipalities have a statutory duty to provide their residents with adequate social and health care services as referred to in section 19 of the Constitution. The state participates in financing these services through the central government transfers system for basic municipal services.

Most of the statutory social welfare and health care services are produced independently by the municipalities themselves. Municipalities may also organise services in cooperation with other municipalities or by outsourcing the services to another municipality, a non-governmental organisation or a private service provider. Municipalities can also use service vouchers to organise their services. Public health care services which the municipalities are responsible for organising can be divided into primary health care and specialised medical care. The Health Care Act (1326/2010) imposes on municipalities and hospital districts obligations related to organising health services.

In the report below, you can select the service package you wish to view. At the top right side of the page, you can select if you wish to view all dimensions or a specific dimension of the service.