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The due date for the student healthcare fee was 31 January 2023 for students studying for a degree who registered as attending for the spring term by 31 January 2023. The total number of students required to pay the fee is approximately 275,000. Most of them, some 213,000 students, paid the healthcare fee by the due date.

About 56,000 students have yet to pay the student healthcare fee. Kela has now sent these students a late payment reminder, which includes a EUR 5 fixed late fee, which is set by law.

“Students have a lot of things to keep track of and we fully understand that they might forget to pay the healthcare fee. However, there is still time to make the payment after receiving the payment reminder,” says Emmi Lehtonen, Team Manager for the Overpayment Recovery Team for Legal Services at Kela.

Around 4,500 students paid the fee after the due date. Kela has sent them, too, a late payment reminder, but only for the late fee.

Everyone who received a letter about the student healthcare fee can also read the letter in the OmaKela e-service. Students can choose to update their information in OmaKela to go paperless, which means all their letters will be available to read in OmaKela only. The students can then choose if they wish to be notified by text message or email when a new letter is available to read in OmaKela.

The healthcare fee that higher education students must pay to Kela covers all the services available from the Finnish Student Health Service . There are no other fees for service or per-visit charges. The 2023 rate of the student healthcare fee is EUR 36.80 per term.

(www.epressi.com)