LANKA -verkosto
11/01/2025
It is once again that time of year, when the initial deductible for medical
reimbursements has reset. The yearly initial deductible is directed at the first 70 euros
of prescription drugs, which has to be paid before Kela’s prescription drug
reimbursements begin. During 2024, the initial deductible was 50 euros, but the cost
was increased from the start of 2025 to be 70 euros.
Last year the Communist Party of Finland’s welfare working group created a citizen
initiative called @alkuomavastuu, that demanded the removal of the initial deductible
for medical reimbursements. The initiative collected only 5 044 signatures (of the 50
000 needed), but it functioned as a great conversation starter about the cruelty of the
initial deductible for medical reimbursements.
The deductible increases drug prices for those people, who require prescription drugs
the most. For a low income person, extra 70 euro payment at the start of the year
might and does mean reducing the quantity of other life’s necessities, like food or
warmth, during the coldest and harsh month of January.
We in LANKA -network demand complete abolition of the initial deductible for
medical reimbursements! We need to create a society, where prescription drugs are
free for all. Individual variance in health should not reduce the individual’s economic
position, especially when the occupational health system already gives the best
healthcare to those who least need it, that being the most well earning members of our
society.
Many of us – including the constitution of Finland – claim that one of the most
important moral responsibilities of a society is to take care of the least well off.
Continuing the economic chastisement of the poor and the long-term sick is cruel and
immoral politics! All economic inequality is, in fact, political. We could choose to live
in a much more equal society, if we just wanted to.
Change doesn’t happen by watching from the sidelines. We have to organise to make
the world better. The finnish workers and poor have nothing to lose, except their
chains!
Contact us: info@lankaverkosto.fi, Our website: https://lankaverkosto.f
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