Healthcare Committee

The Aim of the Healthcare Committee of AmCham Estonia is to provide Estonian policymakers, institutions and other relevant stakeholders with the perspective of US companies that operate in Estonia. Health is an important driver for wealth and economic growth. The Committee therefore would support the EU health agenda towards affordable, sustainable and innovative health systems. Composed of the various healthcare industries (pharmaceuticals, eHealth, medical devices, consumer, and transport industries), it would to be a reliable policy partner to the Estonian institutions and to help ensure that new healthcare-related legislations and policies add value to, and benefit, the entire healthcare ecosystem.

To view the latest position paper by the AmCham Healthcare Committee please CLICK HERE

Here are some of the most relevant issues the committee was addressing in 2019:

Based on many recent and not so recent studies Estonian healthcare financing system (lack of funds in EHIF) is not sustainable in the changed environment (aging population, increased expectation, innovation in HC etc). The committee is trying to identify what are the short and long term plans to make the Estonian HC future-proof.

In approximately half of the European countries, Value Added Tax of prescription medicines is lower than in Estonia (for example 6% in the Netherlands, 5% in Lithuania, 4% in Spain, 2,1% in France compared to 9% in Estonia). High proportional VAT increases especially the price of innovative new pharmaceuticals, creates an additional burden to the Health Insurance Fund and restricts access to new treatments for Estonian patients. The committee is trying to offer a change in the taxation system in order to address the issue.

Background: Today we are measuring healthcare by different input KPIs (number of nights in the hospital, cost of treatment procedures or process quality KPIs (waiting list for medical treatment), but instead we should measure and incentivize patient-centric quality of life KPIs like social functioning, self-care etc. Those KPIs have been developed and validated internationally (https://www.ichom.org/standard-sets/), but none of the countries haven’t yet implemented those nationwide. Estonia could be the leader here, as we do have digital capabilities and we are small. The committee is trying to promote the support of establishing or piloting patient-centric value-based healthcare.

Committee Members: