You do not need pills to grow hair on your head, if you do then your hair has run its course and its life can only be extended in the name of vanity.

Also don’t be a dumbass and lose your wallet.

And also is this the master argument that instantly makes the draconian US healthcare system far better than any other?

Is this post satire?

Sorry if this sounds unsympathetic, but I thought you were nearly bald to begin with?

Incidentally, if my hair would start falling off, I’d rather just cut it all of and start wearing fedoras, instead of starting to pop pills.

But hopefully your hair grows back. It’s obviously more important to you than mine to me. And things should start getting better, right? The lawsuit is over.. I didn’t really get that remark about Nokia, but it’s bound to improve, right?

I’m experiencing some light, normal hairless on the top of my head – but this thing I have is not normal. It’s a big spot on the back-right of my skull, just above my neck. It *may* grow back if I just wait, but these pills should really really help. Yeah it’s not life-or-death, but shouldn’t a good healthcare system pay for crap like this?

And also is this the master argument that instantly makes the draconian US healthcare system far better than any other?

Uhh…hell no. The US system is way more messed up than in Finland. Although if you have nice private insurance in the US…you’re much better off than in Finland.

I’m an American living in Finland, and my healthcare experiences have been usually far superior to what I experienced in the US — even with private health insurance. My Kela cards always arrive and any medication I need is paid for. Most friends have similar experiences. Maybe they just don’t like you Phil.

Your Kela cards always arrive? Do you lose your card on a regular basis or what’s going on here?

Also Finland doesn’t have socialized healthcare as private services co-exist and often even act as supplements of the public system.
Sure it comes off your taxes, but then so does endless war against countries that you might invade with no real reason.

The point is that Kela service is inferior given the amount of money that they take from the taxpayers. For example I have had instances where the pharmacist “cannot” find my kids on the systems if I forget to bring their Kela card.

It is funny how the local video center can find your name and even the police can find your income but Kela cannot find people in their system without the card.

True, it’s not outrageously bad, but if you see what we pay to have this system in place… KELA is slow and makes you to jump through their hoops again and again. I think they really enjoy that.

I use private dental care, because I can get an appointment the same week, at a scheduled time. Can’t have that with public health care. I completely accept the fact that in my village there is no doctor at some days and that the health care center closes for the complete summer. But what’s going on in the cities is not acceptable! Yet, “we” keep voting for the same clowns in eduskunta…

Sounds like alopecia areata. I know the condition since my very close friend suffers from it from time to time.

http://www.naaf.org/

All the best and get well soon!

I wouldn’t describe the Finnish healthcare as socialist — far too much of it is privatised and for a lot of things you have to pay regardless of your income. Eg when I was pregnant my total payout on hospital stays and prescriptions etc came close to 1000€, My daily sick pay was less than the daily rate of the hospital. I know it’s cheaper than the US but not in comparison with other european countries. And don’t get me started on my local health clinic – 3 out of 10 doctor positions are vacant – all the doctors are working for private healthcare now and its those at the bottom of the heap who suffer.

shouldn’t a good healthcare system pay for crap like this?

No, it shouldn’t, because it’s a pure esthetic thing. Nokia can pay if they want their employees to look good.

My advice is to reduce your stress, that’s much better than to pop pills. Don’t answer calls from Nokia when you are not at work, and shut off your phone entirely during your vacations.

Terveyskeskus seems to be in some sort of long-term decline caused by funding cuts. For folks without private care, it really bites the big one. Maybe the pols gets away with it because the people affected aren’t active politically. The Greens (or _someone_!) ought to take up this issue and start lighting fires under politicians’ butts.

HI Phil, get a wig like the guy in that political guy in office.

He has a nice brown cat on his head, why should you be less handsome.

Rabbits are abound this summer, sure one will be on the road.

Welcome back and cut the balls of that idiot that hacked you

Be a man and wear your bald like a man

You big wussy

Also on wikipedia there is alopecia areata. Hopefully usually the hair should be growing back again.

Phil, you’re off message again. Don’t you know that the Finnish health care system is

(a) The best in the world
(b) It’s all free, unlike other countries

How dare you point out your factual experiences. Finns just love their myths don’t they!

Like some anonymous posters love their straw men then, obviously.

Yeah, Finns are really challenged with every day empirical observations: it just somehow escapes their attention when they have to pay for their medication and doctor’s visits… Actually, there is quite a wide spread dissatisfaction with the system (though people don’t want more private sector involvement but instead more welfare state structures – as they invariably do here, for some reason the welfare state is basically universally popular in this country that has had such a long practical experience of it). OECD statistics actually show that we spend less than average of the member countries for health care – and that is starting to show. Though at least we have avoided the ridiculously expensive and ridiculously inefficient chaos of a system that the USA has…

I agree the health system has some considerable problems these days due to funding squeezes.

But this here is not healthcare, it’s cosmetic. Your healthcare will be there waiting for you when you need it.

You guys again direct toward the wrong direction. Finnish health care might be better than the US system, but that comparison doesn’t give many points. Compare the Finnish system to that of other European countries. I am sure to say the Finnish public health care is the worst in Europe.
Well then public health care in Finland is only for the poor. If you go to Terveykeskus, you will notice that most people are very poorly clad people or poor immigrants from Africa. And if you go to private hospitals then you will see totally different demography.
Free public healthcare is the totally mischievous and misleading concept in Finland. If you don’t have money, you will be treated very badly or die waiting for the long queue in Finland. If you have some money, then you can use private hospitals. Effectively I can say there is no public health care in Finland. And Finland is the only country in Europe without public health care.

I’m an American studying Finnish and eventually planning to move to Finland.

I have no prior experience to free healthcare (or is it really free lolol)

However, I don’t think that any healthcare would pay for hair loss pills. It’s purely cosmetic, as Jonas G and others have said. It’s not a really big deal anyways.

My brother had it when he was a teenager. It grew back but it took a couple of years. There is nothing really that healthcare can do about it, and pills don´t guarantee that it will grow back.

Kela doesn´t pay for cosmetic surgery either. I would look much better if I had a facelift.

You foreign residents don’t understand the actual situation. THERE IS NO FREE PUBLIC HEALTH CARE IN FINLAND. If you want to get any health service, you should go to private hospitals. Public health centers really suck and good for nothing. Lazy and unmotivated doctors, old and almost broken equipments, waiting rooms with dirty chairs… But even to get to this, you have to wait several weeks.

You need your own personal money or private insurance for private hospitals.

Every Finn knows the reality and if affordable they buy private insurance. Many middle class people never go to filthy public health centers.

But the irony is that when they asked about Finland, they say “Finland has a free public health care and it’s the best in the world.” Even though themselves never use them. That’s Finland.

And these middle class Finns won’t admit that they use private hospitals always if you don’t become really friendly with them. Lutheran ideology which emphasize the modest life and the social welfare ideology that they pretend to follow don’t let them admit the reality. Even though they don’t believe in the public health care system, and they simply pretend to do it. It’s like even the richest Finns wear very modest in public appearance.

But the reality is that there is no working public health care system in Finland.

European, where in Finland do you live? The health centres are perfectly fine in my home municipality and are not filthy. The doctors have always been fine and I’d go as far to say friendly and helpful. My only bad experience was when my mother (who is rather old) had to go to Helsinki for some complicated treatment and the doctor was foreign (I am assuming Estonian from her description) and she couldn’t understand him. But they found a nurse to translate.

I really agree with European.
Maybe,,those waiting rooms aren’t so dirty, but I fear that the situations of terveyskeskus is not improving much. Here I can go only to Kallio, among the worst medical centre of Scandinavia.
Somewhere else in Europe you can choose the doctor and you can change it.
I try to stay healthy.
I hope that if in need the ambulance and the hospital are still efficient and for free.

A friend was recently told that he needs to sleep while breathing through an oxygen mask or he could die while asleep due to a heart defect.

When they went with the doctor to pick up an oxygen tank from the dispensary the nurse told them that they are only available to Finnish citizens.

Everybody else can just **** off and die.

Prejudice at the highest level. Sick.

Sorry for my ignorance on Finnish healthcare.

Mr Speechless, nr 28, if that is true and your friend is covered by Kela (i.e. not just a vistor, but a legal resident with all required permits who Kela have given a Kelacard to and who is covered by the Finnish social insurance system), then your friend must report that occurance. It simply is not true that you must be a Finnish citizen to receive care from Kela. It’s residence based not citizenship based. An expatriate Finnish citizen on holiday in Finland would not (necessarily) be entitled to funded treatment, for example. Are you sure your friend is covered by Kela?

If your story is true and your friend has been discriminated against because of his nationality, he can even complain to the justice ombudsman who, if this is true, will take it very seriously.

I’ve lived in Finland for 22 years and have never used my KELA-card. My mum might have used in when I was little, but I’ve never been asked for it in a pharmacy or at the doctors.

The medicines and medicine costs is a real jungle, theres three categories. Just like everyone is suspecting “hair loss pills” aren’t on the list. Heart medication is for example. There are some discrepancies as some cheaper medicines are not on the list you get a partial refund from, and certain lmedicines are covered or not depending on what they were perscribed for.

Get over it, first it is not free, and second you can’t FIRE the Nanny State.

But I can fire my provider.

Oh, winter, winter, if only you could get a provider to provide a brain transplant… Well, one can dream.

Oh, KELA. How I loathe thee. To all of those who think that KELA only discriminates against foreigners, wee let me tell you that that is not the case. KELA hates everybody equally. I, a born and bred Finn, have had to wage my share of battles against that bureaucratic place and have come to the conclusion that KELA only exists to make people’s lives miserable.

“share of battles against that bureaucratic place ”

fire them….Go private.

See your “nanny state” in irak.

My kela card(s!) come on time not because I loose them but because they have to be renewed based on my employment situation.

OK Grizzly. Sounds like our KELA actually, what’s the point of that?

You’d think that the pharmacist could just find my name in the computer, but they can’t – Even my local video rental can do that!

Your local video store probably hasn’t got a customer registry with 5 million + entries.
Anyway, the pharmacies can’t, because your name isn’t in the pharmacy’s system. No one’s is. Name and social security number are entered manually each time. (It might look automatic, if they use the bar code reader, but that just enters the social security nr for them.)
Perhaps this will change with the electronic prescriptions.

That KELA card is proof that you’ve been insured by state, ie. that KELA will pay a part of your medicine. Sure the pharmacy could use the social security nr from your other IDs, but in case you weren’t insured by KELA, they would get a slap on the wrist and end up paying KELA’s share for your drugs.

Phil – may I ask what those pills are?

In general I don’t see why the health insurance shouldn’t pay for cosmetic problems, assuming the problem is somehow abnormal or more severe than average. I can perfectly well understand why insurance doesn’t pay for normal healthy people to enhance their appearance, but having patches of hair suddenly fall out of one’s head is certainly not normal. Sure, Phil is not gonna die from it, it only affects the quality of his life. But then I am not gonna die of my allergies either, and they only affect the quality of my life, but KELA still pays for my allergy medication, rather than telling me to pay for them myself or run around with a runny nose.

In alopecia areata’s case (if that’s what Phil has), however, there was recently a few articles saying that none of the medications that are usually prescribed have been proven to work. Most cases recover by themselves, though.

Another interesting question is how come KELA doesn’t pay for dental crowns. It’s not like there are any alternative options: if you need a crown, you need a crown, and all you can do is pay for it yourself and curse KELA.

BTW, are there any private dental insurances in Finland? Never seen one.

Anyway, Phil, good luck and speedy recovery!

If KELA, the tax office etc are NOT populated by a hardcore of lazy, shiftless idiots who would rather drink coffee and talk balls than work, I would be very surprised indeed. It’s the same the world over- the civil service attracts those with little ambition and nurtures that until the employees think that doing even the simplest thing is beneath them. What seems exceptional here is the bitterness they exude towards those who pay their wages.

Finnish Nanny State also does not ask doctors in Finland to screen Men for cancer, but if you are a woman, YES…. Ladies get a paid for x-ray and screening test. Men just get the finger. Men have to PAY for their ($25 Dollar) test.

So how did that happen? Saving money again?

Y’know, Phil from your picture you don’t have much hair to start with. Also, you probably went to the Nokia doctor, so that’s private to start with – if you want to try to get more (free) help you’ll have to go to guessing center

As for Winter’s comments, well you get what you pay for with the public healthcare – if it’s serious they’ll sort it. For instance I had a really fantastic anal probe to remove some might-be-cancer polyps from Kela last month all for 22 Euros. Apparently 5% risk is enough for them to stick a big tube up my ass.

As for European, well both my children were born in Finland and that was free. Plenty of drugs for the missus, everything hunky dori…

-Mook

“esteemed Physics Professor Yoshiaki Arata of Osaka University in Japan claims to have made the first successful demonstration of cold fusion. Last Thursday, May 22, Arata and his colleague Yue-Chang Zhang of Shianghai Jiotong University presented the cold fusion demonstration to 60 onlookers, including other physicists, as well as reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios. If Arata and Zhang´s demonstration is real, it could lead to a future of new, clean, and cheap energy generation.”

http://www.physorg.com/news131101595.html

http://newenergytimes.com/news/2008/29img/Arata-Demo-Photos-AT.htm

This highly respected Japanese professor is going all-in with kitchen sink, putting his reputation and everything else on line. If other scientists are able to reproduce this, things truly are going to CHANGE big time!!!

Proct, are the medical services available for you too in EU?

You don’r understand Phil!

In Finland sub-human Ulkos must pay tax, just like the Finns.

However, don’t expect to access healthcare or any other public service. They won’t give it to you even though you’ve paid for it. Why? You’re always be considered as foreign scum that’s why.

Do you think that you’ll receive a Finnish pension when you retire Phil?

DREAM ON!

My big gripe here is that pharmacies don’t have a system where they can look up your prescriptions. Why should I have to keep track of a prescription paper for a year for refills when they could just store all that info in a computer system like they do in the US. Where’s the customer service when you need it here?

>>>In Finland sub-human Ulkos must pay tax, just like the Finns. You’re always be considered as foreign scum that’s why.

Uh, you’re the one that’s scum, Mr. Anonymous, for even thinking a thought like this. If you’ve even travelled outside of Finland, you’d realize that every culture has it’s upsides and downsides and that it’s a great world out there! So go bugger off!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/health/views/17essa.html?em&ex=1213848000&en=90a2270d408d195d&ei=5087