KELA

Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, provides social security coverage for Finnish residents and many Finns living abroad through the different situations of their lives. My family receives child benefit for one child. Personally, I have previously received support for my studies and housing as well as support for a student loan from Kela. When I had a child, I received maternity allowance and parental allowance, which are currently called pregnancy allowance and parental allowance. In addition, at that time, I received a maternity kit with everyday supplies for the baby and the family. When I’m at work, Kela compensates for sick time and, for example, now, during the pandemic, it is possible to also receive infectious disease allowance for sick days. Some of the subsidies come to you and some go to the employer. Kela’s compensation is also paid e.g. medicines or medical services.

I have had a European Health Insurance Card or EHIC issued by Kela for years. With the help of the card, I can get necessary medical treatment in EU or EEA countries, Switzerland, Great Britain or Northern Ireland. This kind of treatment may be needed if you suddenly get sick or have an accident on the way. With the help of the card, the treatment must be received at the same price as the people living in the country receive it. At that time, the local deductible is paid for the treatment and the rest is billed from Kela. (Kela 2022.)

My Kanta

In My Kanta Pages, I can see my own health records and prescriptions. I can also renew my prescriptions and save various statements about my care, such as a wish to donate organs or a wish to be treated. From My Kanta Pages, I also get an EU certificate of having a Covid infection. You can log into your account online with bank IDs, mobile IDs or with an ID card for online services. Authentication is also possible with the organization’s card or social and healthcare professional card. In My Kanta Pages, you can also view the information of a child under 18 years of age or, with the authorization of another adult, also their information. (Kanta 2022.)

I have used My Kanta service a lot. I am looking at my own information and have created a care will for myself and decided on organ donation after my death. I often use bank credentials for logging in. I can also view my child’s information through the portal and prescriptions can be renewed conveniently through the portal.

Keva

According to Keva’s data, my lowest retirement age is 67 years and 11 months. However, if I work until I’m 70, the amount of my pension will increase by approx. 10%. This information can be found on Keva’s website by logging into the online service using, for example, bank credentials. I was not surprised that the pension amount will be a much lower amount than my salary based on the current information. On the other hand, at the age of 30, there are still many changes to the retirement pension before retirement.

Online stores

I visited online stores such as eBay, Amazon and Booking.com. I have used all of these online stores before. eBay and Amazon offer all kinds of stuff and the prices seem really low. However, these often have additional delivery fees and when you order the products from abroad to Finland, you also have to pay taxes and customs fees. The quality of the products is often poor and you have to be careful when ordering to get even close to what you wanted to order. In these online stores, the supply is more than the needs and there is always a cheaper product just one click away, so the consumer can easily be blinded by inexpensive products.

Booking.com is also already familiar to me and I have often booked hotels through it. Everything has gone well and the accommodations have been as promised. I like to compare prices and sites like Booking.com do some of the comparing for me. I have not booked flights or accommodation from abroad through the service.

I myself often use online stores. I often order clothes for myself and my child online and I prefer well-known websites for my purchases. So at Christmas time, I have ordered Christmas presents for my godchildren from online stores, and it seems like a convenient option in the middle of everyday life. I don’t use online stores for my work. In taking care of my child’s affairs, I have often used the application and websites of the medical center Mehiläinen. Mehiläinen’s application is accessed using bank credentials, and from there you can see at a glance the booked appointments, doctors’ report texts, lab results, prescriptions, etc. The application has always worked flawlessly and booking appointments and e.g. remote doctor’s appointments are smooth and successful even in a hurry.

Digitalization and digital gap

The digital gap is a real problem today. Elderly people in particular are often ignored when developing digital services. Most of us have smartphones etc., which we use to use applications and internet browsers, but there are still users of services who do not own or do not want to own smart devices. In many places, the resources used for booking an appointment have been reduced due to internet appointment booking, and therefore people who do not use digital services can find themselves in an unpleasant situation when appointment booking times are reduced and customer service staff are reduced.

I read and commented the following blogs:

– https://blogi.savonia.fi/sarinsivusto/digi-citizen/

Hi Sari! 

I got to know your Digital Competence test results and looked very similar to me. I chose Mehilänen’s application for my blog and it was great to see in your text that the Terveystalo application works just as agile and effortlessly. I agree that public health care should develop its application-based services. It would be convenient for, for example, reserved times and other information appear in the same application. 

Kaisamari Koponen, https://blogi.savonia.fi/kaisamarikoponen/

– https://blogi.savonia.fi/digitalisedanne/digi-citizen/

Hi,

You are indeed focused on the subject and written comprehensive, thank you! It was a pleasure to read your blog and it aroused a lot of thoughts about how diverse digitalisation is. It was interesting to read your writing in the Digital Gap section and how easily a person can remain in a weaker position just because they are unable to use digital services. Today, the older population has also come to digital services and have even gained more social contacts through social media. I myself have been wondering how I could share my daily life with my grandparents, and when Grandma and Grandpa (both about 85 years) received an email a few years ago, it was easier to send pictures, and so they can see our daily lives in the form of pictures. The next step is probably Facebook…

Kaisamari Koponen, https://blogi.savonia.fi/kaisamarikoponen/

– https://blogi.savonia.fi/tiinakuiri/digi-citizen-for-the-digi-citizen-assignments/

Hello! 

What a wonderfully cheerful blog and beautiful pictures! 

I read your text and thought about your writing about buying online stores. Buying online stores is easy, fast and can be done at any time of the day, but directly from the home sofa. At best, orders are delivered to the door or at least to the nearest post service point or locker where it can be picked up during extensive opening hours. What a wonderful way to buy things! It may even be difficult for an accustomed e-commerce user to go shopping or discount sales during peak hours. Fortunately, most things can be purchased online nowadays! 

Kaisamari Koponen, https://blogi.savonia.fi/kaisamarikoponen/

I took a test on digital skills and it shows that I have a good grasp of safety-related issues and especially health-related issues in digitalization. The weakest overall share was production and from there the share of automation.

Self evaluation

The tasks intended for Finnish students related to Kela, Kanta and Keva were already very familiar to me, as well as the online stores that were discussed in this section. However, it is good to spend time on these familiar sections and think about whether there have been any changes or if there is anything that could be improved. Likewise, it’s good to sometimes think about whether the pages I use are safe and what kind of risks are associated with them. The assignment was interesting, as were the other students’ texts. Thanks for this.

Kela 2022. European Health Insurance Card. Web page. Last modified 24.11.2022. https://www.kela.fi/european-health-insurance-card.  Refered 12.12.2022.

Kanta 2022. My Kanta Pages. Web page. Last modified 25.10.2022. https://www.kanta.fi/en/my-kanta-pages. Refered 12.12.2022.