ERR (04.05.2018) Minister of Health and Labour Riina Sikkut (SDE), sworn in earlier this week, does not support changing Estonia's health care system away from the current solidarity-based model. Sikkut rejects the idea of a new model based on punishing people for unhealthy lifestyle choices as well as the state getting private companies to run its insurance funds.

news.err (06.04.2018) The Estonian government on Thursday approved a pension reform bill that would make the pension system more flexible from 2021, change the formula for calculating pension size as well as tie the retirement age to average life expectancy beginning in 2027.

gemalto.com (21.06.2017) In less than a year after the Estonian eHealth Foundation announced that it planned to use blockchain technology to secure the public health records of Estonia's 1.3 million citizens, a ground-breaking system was up and running. The system facilitates improved access to vital information for health professionals, while simultaneously guaranteeing patient confidentiality and the integrity of their files. It's a holy grail of healthcare.

We live in a digital world, yet the majority of medical records such as blood test reports or x-rays are stored on paper. Moreover, most hospitals don’t share access to medical records, which is time consuming for doctors when prescribing treatments and inconvenient for patients. Having medical records on the blockchain can have a positive effect on disease management, disease prevention, and minimize unnecessary healthcare expenses. Digital health records will also open up the possibility for cross-border sharing of medical data if a patient is on holidays and requires treatment abroad.

Estonia’s healthcare system has been revolutionized by innovative e-solutions. Patients and doctors, not to mention hospitals and the government benefit from the convenient access and savings that e-services have delivered. Each person in Estonia that has visited a doctor has an online e-Health record that can be tracked. In order to keep health information completely secure and at the same time accessible to authorised individuals, the electronic ID-card system uses KSI Blockchain technology to ensure data integrity and mitigate internal threats to the data.

https://www.eu2017.ee/cultural-events/embedding-digital-societal-challenges 

• Showcase by Liisa Past, Cyber CRO at Estonian IT System Authority: Security as a state of mind (PDF, 1.68 MB)

News ERR (29.09.2017) The Estonian government at its Wednesday meeting approved proposals for amendments to the law which would extend paternal benefits as well as make the country's parental leave and benefits system in general more flexible.