78th Session of the UN General Assembly
High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage
Statement delivered by the Minister of Health of the Republic of Estonia, Riina Sikkut
New York, 21 September 2023
Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen
Since the last high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage in 2019, the world has witnessed many global crises that have brought new challenges, but also hopefully have reinforced our dedication to achieve the targets set for the Sustainable Development Goals.
In recent years, the health systems of all our countries have been put under stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The concurrent socio-economic crisis has been a stark reminder of the importance to invest in the resilience of our health systems.
The Estonian health system is based on the values of solidarity. With a strong primary healthcare, it provides a good coverage and a wide range of health services to the vast majority of the population.
Still, health inequities remain a challenge requiring innovative approaches and targeted policies to reach those most vulnerable.
Our aim for the coming years is to broaden the health insurance coverage to the whole population and to reduce the burden of out-of-pocket payments.
It is not an easy task for governments facing fiscal constraints, but ensuring sustainable public financing of our health systems is the only way to achieve universal health coverage.
In Estonia, we believe that digital technologies should be part of the solution to make health systems more people-centred and sustainable. Digital tools enable us to provide healthcare with higher precision and better coordination than ever before.
The future is personalised medicine – genomic data used in combination with other relevant data sources will enable better targeted interventions at all stages, from prediction and prevention to diagnosis and treatment.
Estonian Biobank, representing about 20% of Estonia’s adult population, is a great asset for research. After almost 20 years, we will finally be able to reap the benefits bringing real value to clinical work and population health, for example through targeted screening to earlier detect breast cancer.
Estonia is committed to the goals and actions set out in the political declaration. In December, Health Ministers of the European Region will gather in Tallinn, to reconfirm our commitment to the values of the Tallinn Charter for strengthening health systems. Trust and transformation are the two main themes of the Tallinn Charter conference, serving as guiding principles for moving forward to more resilient and responsive health systems to achieve universal health coverage.
Finally, Estonia condemns in the strongest possible terms Russian Federation`s military aggression against Ukraine. This unprovoked war has brought devastating consequences for health and wellbeing in Ukraine and beyond. We call all UN State Parties to respect international law and cease hostilities. Peace is the most important precondition to the achievement of the SDGs.
Thank you.