Starting 1 January 2021, the Finnish Student Health Service (Finnish abbreviation YTHS) will provide healthcare service to all degree students at universities and universities of applied sciences. So far FSHS has provided service only for university students. This means changes in FSHS services and payment methods.
Only students who are pursuing a degree in a Finnish higher education institution and who have registered as attending students are eligible for student health services. Exchange students’ healthcare services will be provided by the city of Tampere or a private healthcare service provider. We’ll provide more information on exchange students’ health care services this month.
From now on the FSHS payment must be paid independently to Kela. Students are not billed for the fee and it must be paid by all degree students, also the ones that are exchange students in other countries.
The fee is paid to Kela once per term. In spring 2021, the student healthcare fee due date is January 31 if you have registered as attending for the term at that time. If you register as attending later of that date, your payment due is July 31. The student healthcare fee will be 35.80 euros. The healthcare fee must be paid via Kela’s e-service. However, if you cannot use the e-service for instance because you don’t have Finnish online banking credentials, you can pay the fee as a bank transfer.
For the term 2020-2021 the members of student union paid the FSHS fee only for fall 2020, so all students who are attending at spring 2021 must pay the healthcare fee to Kela due 31.1.2021.
Read how to pay the student healthcare fee at Kela’s website here.
If you do not pay the healthcare fee by the due date, Kela will send you a reminder. If you pay the healthcare fee after the due date, you also have to pay a late-payment charge. If you do not pay the healthcare fee after receiving the reminder, Kela can withhold the fee and the late-payment charge from the study grant payments. If you don’t get any study grant from Kela, the matter will be referred to the enforcement authority for collection.
There will be no appointment fees for FSHS services, so you pay only the student healthcare fee, but any uncancelled no-show appointments will still be subject to a charge next year.
More information about changes at FSHS services you can find at FSHS 2021 website here.