Healthcare in Finland: three ceilings and a card that comes by itself

Finnish healthcare is solid, affordable and — once you know the two keys — surprisingly clear. The confusion sits at the start: which registration actually opens what?

Two keys: the kotikunta and the Kela card

Public healthcare runs via the wellbeing services county of your place of residence, and access hangs on your kotikunta — the municipality-of-residence registration with DVV. With it you register with the terveysasema, the health centre that fulfils the role of GP here, and from there the referral runs to the outpatient clinic.

The Kela card is the other key, and it takes care of something else: the reimbursements from health insurance — medicines at the pharmacy, part of private care, healthcare transport. You report your move to Kela (via OmaKela or form Y 77e); the card itself then comes automatically by post, unlike what many sites claim. Whoever comes with a Dutch pension registers the CAK's S1 form with Kela — with it you pay the same fees in public healthcare as a Finn.

If you leave before your AOW age (the Dutch state pension age), watch the date. The CAK route is expected to be open from 1 November 2026 only to new registrants with a statutory benefit — AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong. Whoever brings only an early-retirement pension, an RVU payment or an occupational pension taken early then falls outside it and has to arrange cover until the AOW age differently. Whoever is already a CAK customer keeps their rights. What exactly changes, and what you can do now.

What you pay: fees with a ceiling

You pay a fee per visit — legally at most € 30.20 for the health centre, € 71.30 for the outpatient clinic; counties may charge less and sometimes do. Above that hangs the healthcare ceiling (maksukatto): € 815 per calendar year in 2026. Whoever reaches it is done paying for the rest of the year for the care that counts. The circulating € 762 is the old amount; the ceilings are indexed every two years.

Medicines have their own chain: first you pay a threshold of € 70.33 a year yourself, after that Kela reimburses via the card, up to the medicines ceiling of € 636.12 — above that each prescription medicine still costs € 2.50. The third ceiling covers healthcare transport: € 25 own contribution per single journey, with an annual maximum of € 300. The three ceilings are independent of each other; together they form a maximum healthcare risk of some € 1,750 per person per year — big financial surprises don't exist here.

The edges: dentist, private care and the portal

Public dental care runs via the same wellbeing services county, with fees that count towards the healthcare ceiling (technical costs excepted) — but the waiting times are longer there, and many Finns turn to private dentists. Private care in general is plentiful, but from 2026 count it as entirely at your own expense: the Kela reimbursement for a private doctor's visit has been reduced to a symbolic € 8. Everything that happens you find in Omakanta, the national healthcare portal: prescriptions (all electronic), records, referrals. One thing the portal doesn't bring along for you: your Dutch medication overview. Print it before departure — otherwise your first Finnish doctor starts with an empty screen.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Finland.