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Finnish parliament approves healthcare reform in bid to control costs – Metro US

Finnish parliament approves healthcare reform in bid to control costs

Finnish Parliament votes on EU’s own resources decision, in Helsinki
Finnish Parliament votes on EU’s own resources decision, in Helsinki

HELSINKI (Reuters) -The Finnish parliament approved on Wednesday a government proposal for legislation to reform the social and healthcare system, a tally of assembly members’ votes showed.

The decision marks a significant step towards reform which the government says will serve to both curb public spending and reduce Finland’s disparities in provision of healthcare and welfare benefits.

In a bid to boost the sector’s productivity, the legislation will shift governance over social services and healthcare from 309 cities and municipalities to 21 so-called welfare regions.

The decision, which passed by a margin of 105-77, was a victory for the centre-left coalition led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Sanna Marin after several failed attempts at reform by earlier governments.

The Finnish central bank has said that a failure to reform social services could become a strain on the country’s public finances amid a steadily ageing of the population.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Heinrich)