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Healthcare in Estonia is supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs and funded by general taxation through the National Health Service.
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Electronic health record
Estonia is a pioneer in the use of Electronic health records because when general practice was moved out of hospitals in 1998 the records were kept in the hospitals, so GPs had to start their own system. Dr Madis Tiik established an electronic record system though it was officially illegal until 2002. He was a founder member of the eHealth Foundation and became its chief executive. There is now a central record system which is available to all healthcare professionals and can be viewed by the patient. Some tasks are automated, so that doctors do not have to certify that people are fit to drive. The application automatically checks their medical history.
Child support
Upon giving birth, the Estonian government grants one of the parents 100% of their former salary for 18 months, plus 320 Euros of one-time support per child. After 18 months, the parent has the right to resume her/his former position. In addition, the parent and child receive free healthcare. Parents who did not work before giving birth (unemployed, students, etc.) receive 278 Euros a month; the top salary is capped at 2,157 Euros a month. These measures, which have been in force from 2005, have not been proven to have had a major positive effect on the birth rate in Estonia, which has increased already since 2001.
Those policy measures concentrate on the first 18 months of the child's life. After 18 months, the monthly state support to a child goes down to 19 Euros a month (for the first two children) and 58 euros (for three or more children), plus free healthcare. There are many exceptions and added bonuses to the rule. For example, the child of a single parent receives twice the sum of child support. The child of an army member receives five times the sum of the child support, and children in foster families receive 20 times the sum of the child support. Despite considerable variation and fluctuations in the support to the family with children, the majority of Estonian families do not face great hardships and the State of The World's Mothers 2011 report ranked Estonia as the 18th best country in the world to be a mother, ahead of countries like Canada and the United States. According to the CIA World Factbook, Estonia has the lowest maternal death rate in the world.