FAQ about the healthcare fee in higher education

Starting 1 January 2021, the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) will provide services not only to students of traditional universities but also to students of universities of applied sciences.

Kela will have administrative responsibility for the healthcare provision of students in higher education and for the collection of healthcare fees. Higher education students will pay a healthcare fee to Kela twice a year.

The fee collected from students is part of the system of funding health services for higher education students. Seventy-seven percent of the funding comes from the State, while the remaining 23% is financed with healthcare fees paid by students. 

All higher education students who are entitled to FSHS services pay a healthcare fee to Kela. The fee is a contribution towards student healthcare in general and not a payment for individual services.

If you are not sure whether you have to pay the fee, see Who must pay the healthcare fee for students in higher education.

If you still have questions, visit our e-services to send us a message. Under Opiskelijan asiat (Student affairs), select “Korkeakouluopiskelijan terveydenhoitomaksu” (Student healthcare fee in higher education) as the topic. Alternatively, you can call us at 020 634 2550.

If you pay the healthcare fee even if not required to do so, the fee will be returned to you.

Yes, you do.

The student healthcare fee in higher education is a tax-like charge and not a payment for a visit to a healthcare provider or for individual service. It is collected to fund student health services generally.

Seventy-seven percent of the funding comes from the State, while the remaining 23% is financed with healthcare fees paid by students.

You must pay the healthcare fee if you are studying for a degree in a Finnish higher education institution and have registered as attending for the term in question. Having to pay the fee is not affected by any occupational health coverage you may have at the same time.

You can choose which services to use.

If you graduated in the autumn term 2020, you do not have to pay the healthcare fee for the spring term 2021. You are also not entitled to use the services of YTHS in the spring term 2021.
 

If you are enrolled in a degree programme at a Finnish higher education institution and have registered as attending for the current term, you must pay the healthcare fee irrespective of where you live.

If you are enrolled in a degree programme at a Finnish higher education institution and have registered as non-attending for the current term, you do not have to pay the healthcare fee.

If you studying for a degree in a foreign higher education institution and are unable to use FSHS services, you do not have to pay the healthcare fee.

You do not have to pay the healthcare fee if you are studying for a degree in a foreign higher education institution.

No, unless you are pursuing a degree at a Finnish higher education institution.

The fee must be paid by students who are studying for a Finnish higher education degree and have registered as attending for the autumn or spring term.

If you are registered as attending in a Finnish higher education institution while doing your study exchange or other period of foreign study, you must pay the healthcare fee. You do not have to pay the healthcare fee if you are registered as non-attending.

Higher education institutions do not have a uniform policy on whether they require students to register as attending while on a study exchange.

Having to pay the fee does not depend on whether you currently receive financial aid. You may have to pay the fee even if you do not receive financial aid.

You must pay the healthcare fee if you studying for a degree in a Finnish higher education institution and have registered as attending for the current term.

Please contact your school if you have questions about registering as attending or non-attending.

The requirement to pay the fee is defined by law. Students who are completing a Finnish higher education degree and are registered as attending for a specific term have to pay the fee for that term even if they do not use student health services.

You must first pay the healthcare fee yourself, and when you have done that, you can apply for reimbursement of the fee as a rehabilitation expense. Kela will reimburse you for the healthcare fee as a necessary rehabilitation expense.

You can pay the healthcare fee via Kela's e-service starting in December 2020. More detailed instructions can be found on the ‘How to pay the healthcare fee in higher education’ page.

If you have been reminded to pay the healthcare fee, please pay the fee through your online bank, using the payment details provided in the reminder.

No, you don’t. The healthcare fee is assessed on individual students and not on the basis of the number of higher education institutions attended.

If you interrupt the studies or give up your right to pursue studies before the start of the term, you are not liable to pay the healthcare fee.

If you are registered as attending for the term but you interrupt the studies or give up your right to pursue studies during the term, you are liable to pay the healthcare fee.

No. All students pay the same amount. However, the fee may vary from year to year.

If you a are student at more than one higher education institution and have registered as attending with all of them, you do not have to pay several fees. You only have to pay Kela the fee once.

If you do not pay the healthcare fee by the due date, a fixed late-payment charge will be added to it. After the due date, we will send you a letter reminding you to pay the fee.

If you still do not pay the fee, we may withhold the fee and the late-payment charge from your study grant payments without first consulting you.

If it is not possible to withhold them from your study grant payments, the matter will be referred to the enforcement authority for collection.

No, you don’t. We will check the registration status of all students at a later date. We will return the fee if you have paid it but have not registered as attending for the term in question.

The healthcare fee is confirmed on a calendar year basis, so you can for example pay the fees due for spring term 2021 and autumn term 2021 at the same time. However, in autumn 2021 you can only pay the fee for the autumn term, because the amount of the fee due for spring term 2022 will not be known yet.

Kela will refund the fee to you automatically if you pay it despite not having to do so. This will take some time, but you need not do anything to receive the refund.

However, if you wish you can ask for a refund by sending us a message on our e-service or calling us at 020 634 2650. Also tell us the bank account number to which the refund should be paid.

You need not do anything, the fee will be refunded to you.

However, if you wish you can ask for a refund by sending us a message on our e-service or calling us at 020 634 2650. Also tell us the bank account number to which the refund should be paid.

We cannot bill students because we will not have a list of all affected students before the due date. The healthcare fee must be paid by all students who register as attending. However, it is possible to register as attending as late as the due date. For example, the first due date is scheduled for 31 January 2021. Students who register as attending on that date must pay the fee on the same date.

To reach all students who are required to pay the fee, we are providing information about the change and about the fee through several different channels.

If you do not pay the healthcare fee after you have been reminded of it, Kela can withhold the fee and the late-payment charge, i.e. deduct them from your study grant without your consent. If you are not a study grant recipient or if the fee cannot be withheld for some other reason, the matter will be turned over to the enforcement authority for collection.

If you have received a payment reminder, you can find the information about the healthcare fee in Kela’s e-service under Perintä (in Finnish) or Återkrav (in Swedish). The information shows whether Kela is withholding the healthcare fee from your study grant payments. If no withholding is mentioned in the information, you must pay the healthcare fee unprompted. If you do not pay, Kela will refer the fee to the enforcement authority for collection.

You can also request that the fee be withheld from some other benefit that Kela is paying to you.

The payment outstanding notice is a document which sets out Kela’s decision as to whether a student must pay the healthcare fee for a specific term.

You will not receive it automatically, but Kela is required to provide it to you if you ask for it.

You can ask for it for example if you have received a request for payment and do not agree that you have to pay; i.e., you do not agree that you are registered as attending for the term in question. Please note that even if you decide to ask for a payment outstanding notice, you must still pay the healthcare fee by the due date. Kela will refund the fee to you if you pay it despite not having to do so.

The liability to pay the fee is determined on the basis of the degree you are pursuing and the registration as attending or non-attending. Kela has received this information about the students from the educational institutions and sent demands for payment to the students based on the information. However, Kela does not automatically receive information on changes in study status during the term from the educational institutions.

If your status as an attending student has changed to non-attending after the healthcare fee has been referred to Kela’s Overpayment Recovery Centre for collection, you should contact Kela’s Overpayment Recovery Centre to clarify the issue. Kela’s Overpayment Recovery Centre is open weekdays from 9.00 to 16.00.

Kela is obligated to charge a late-payment charge, if the healthcare fee is paid after the due date for payment. In 2021, the late-payment charge is €5.

The fixed late-payment charge is laid down by law (the Act on Student Health Services for Students in Higher Education). The amount of the charge is laid down annually by a Government Decree.

Under the law, only students who are pursuing a degree in a Finnish higher education institution and are registered as attending for the current term are eligible for student health services. Because exchange students are not pursuing a degree in a Finnish higher education institution, they are not eligible for FSHS services.

So if you are not pursuing a degree in Finland, you cannot use FSHS services. Typically, students who are EU nationals can visit the municipal health centre, while students from outside the EU should have private medical insurance that allows them to see a private healthcare provider.

Learn more: Medical treatment in international situations

Tailor-made education programmes are commissioned and paid for by a specific organisation and intended for a particular group of students. Students attending such programmes are not eligible for student health services.

You can continue to use FSHS services for the rest of the term if you graduate mid-term. The healthcare fee is assessed on a term-by-term basis and the full fee must be paid for all terms in which the student is registered as attending.

Payment of the healthcare fee is not a precondition for using FSHS services.

If you are studying for a degree in a Finnish higher education institution and have registered as attending, you can use FSHS services even if you have not yet paid the fee. The FSHS checks whether you are eligible.

Yes, you have the option to also use municipal health services.

If you are unhappy with the services provided by the FSHS or its service network, visit the FSHS website and give feedback.

If you are unhappy with the care you received or how you were treated, you should contact the FSHS location that you visited. If that does not produce the desired outcome, you can submit a written complaint to the location. You may also submit a complaint about your care to the Regional State Administrative Agency or to Valvira (National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health), or file a notice of patient injury. More information about the complaint process and the notice of patient injury is available on the FSHS website.

If you are unhappy with Kela's role in providing access to student health services, its actions in levying or collecting the healthcare fee, or if you have suggestions for improvement, you can provide feedback to Kela. Please note, however, that you should not use feedback for your personal business with Kela.

If you have questions about paying the healthcare fee, please contact  Kela’s customer service. If you do not agree that you are liable to pay the fee, please see our website for instructions on how to appeal the payment outstanding notice.