KELA
My family includes two working adults. We are fortunate that we don`t need to make much use of KELA’s services at this very moment. In Finland has very good social welfare and KELA provides some of the services.
We have had life situations also in which the KELA-services have been used. We have received KELA’s support, for example, as parents of a child. We have received from Kela a maternity package, maternity and parental allowance and child benefit. KELA has also paid rehabilitation allowance, medicine, medical and travel expenses in certain life situations. I have received also a study grant and housing benefits a long time ago. Now I pay the healthcare fee for students in higher education through OmaKela. I have had a European Health Insurance Card for many years and fortunately I haven´t had to use it.
We must be happy to have Finnish social welfare supports to us in different life situations.
OMAKANTA – MY KANTA
My Kanta is a great example of a nationwide digital service in healthcare. You need a Finnish personal ID code when using the service, for example online bank IDs, mobile ID or ID card for online services. I log in the My Kanta with my bank ID. There I can find almost all my health information like recipes, laboratory results and doctor epicrisis.
KEVA
I visited first time Keva´s site. I used pension calculator at https://elaketietosi.keva.fi/laskurit/vanhuuselake. My lowest retirement age is 66 years 3 months and target retirement age is 68 years 4 months. These 2 years 1 month more in working life means about 400 euros more to my pension. I didn’t get an answer if I retire at age 63 years. I still have a lot of years of work left.
ONLINE SHOP
Online stores are a good option for shopping, and I only have positive experiences with online shopping. I shop online when they are of benefit to me, a few times a year. For example, I ordered a new oven from Verkkokauppa.fi web side last week to our home and the package arrived today in my home.
I look at services online, such as hotel accommodation, but I´ll book a room at the hotel by phone. Because in addition to booking a room, I may also need more information and it will be taken care of at the same time on the phone. The room price is often the same as on the website. In my opinion, Finnish online shop services are reliable. When I have shopping online, I mainly use an online payment, because for the buyer online payment is a familiar, easy and safe way to pay for online purchases. However, I prefer to buy goods in brick-and-mortar stores and I want to support local self-employed and employment.
SERVICE/APPLICATION FROM MY FIELD
Terveystalo application. I have work in social and health care, but I use the Terveystalo app in private life. When I use private healthcare, the app makes it easy to book an appointment for a doctor or use chat or video service. I can also quickly see the information recorded by the doctor, without logging in to My Kanta. Kela card is also saved in the application, and it is therefore ”always at hand”. The app’s on my phone. I think mobile apps are user-friendly and convenient. I think public healthcare should learn from private healthcare about developing digital app services.
DIGITALIZATION GAP
The digital gap and exclusion are between those who have access to digital technology and those who do not and it´s the present day. And it will continue to exist in the future. The reasons of this difference can be due to generational gap, cognitive, economic or you belong to a special group. Or you are a person, such as an elderly person, who is a lack of tech readiness or afraid and therefore dont´t to learn digital skills. On the other hand, there are also older people for whom the use of digital services is natural. In society, we are individuals, we must remember that.
The National Digital Services Law and the EU Accessibility Directive aim to reduce the digital divide and exclusion. This means that people’s different situations must be taken into account when designing digital services. People who do not have access to the Internet and digital services are excluded from much information. The Internet and digital services are also a channel for social networking and in many ways increase social capital for people. More and more, for example, social and health care services are produced online. And physical services can be geographically far away and are therefore not easily accessible to people. The task of people who design services is to ensure that services are equally accessible to all people.
DIGITAL COMPETENCE TEST
Digital competences test was interesting an reflects my digital skills.
COMMENTS TO OTHERS
Taija´s site, Tiina´s blog and Jaana´s blog
SELF EVALUATION
This exercise was interesting. It contained a lot of familiar things. But also new experiences, like Keva site. The digital competence test was also interesting and described my digital skills well.
REFERENCES
It was intresting to read your story and opinions. I think that we all are quite wellknown for Kela’s services and also we all have used some of their services. In finland we have quite good social security system and our pension system is quite good too, until our pension will be a lot more smaller than our salary from work. Terveystalo application is familiar to me because of my occupational health is organized there. It is easy to use and phone application brings this company and its’ services on our hands when we need help. Your blog is easy to use and I think that you are good at using computer.
Hi Sari! Not being a Finnish citizenship, I am not aware about how Finnish institutions operate. I found it extraordinarily interesting to see how easy you found and had access to your future pension using the pension calculator in Keva! For having that information in Italy, the procedure everything but easy, since it is necessary to spend time and be extremely patient. If you want to visit my blog, my URL is: https://blogi.savonia.fi/francescabonaparte/digi-citizen/