Sustainable healthcare services and multi-channel funding

In Finland, the funding of healthcare services is based on a multi-channel system, i.e. the costs of services and medicines are covered with funding from several sources. The funding structures may affect not only access to care and the equality of care, but also the cost-effectiveness and steerability of the system.

The aim of this study is to produce multi-perspective information on the funding of social security, multi-channel funding and its impacts on the funding of healthcare services and the care of patients. The study investigates how multi-channel funding systems have been evaluated in international research literature, how the concept of multi-channel funding is used in justifications in policymaking, how the distribution of funding responsibility is reflected in the interface between outpatient and hospital care, and how a multi-channel system is reflected in patients’ share of payments and their equality.

This multi-method study consists of three parts. In the first phase, a literature review based on a systematic search will be carried out, in which research on the insurance systems of different countries and the manifestation of multi-channel systems internationally are examined. In the second phase, a survey will be conducted to determine how the concept of multi-channel funding is used in Finnish decision-making and its justifications. In the third phase, the methods of a register study are used to examine medicines as one of the key and most debated manifestations of multi-channel funding.

Researchers

• Hanna Koskinen, Leading Researcher
• Terhi Kurko
• Timo Hujanen

Project Implementation Period

1.1.2026–31.12.2028