State budget for 2025
Bolstering investment in women’s health
News story | Date: 17/10/2024 | Ministry of Health and Care Services
To date, the Norwegian government has bolstered investment in targeted women’s health initiatives to the tune of around NOK 150 million. In the proposed state budget for 2025, the government is suggesting a further NOK 13 million to follow up on the new women’s health strategy.
The government is prioritising women’s health in order to ensure equality in health services. The government has taken a goal-oriented and systematic approach to improving women’s health. Openness and knowledge about women’s health are needed, as well as better investigation, treatment, and follow-up of women’s health in the health service.
“The government will bolster efforts relating to women’s health to ensure equality in health services. To this end, we’ve just tabled a women’s health strategy, and we’re already proposing a further NOK 13 million to follow up on this,” says Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s Minister of Health and Care Services.
The government’s women’s health strategy has three objectives and 18 initiatives. The three objectives are:
- Good health for women throughout their lives. To succeed in this, it’s essential that we step up our knowledge and expertise about the diseases and conditions that affect girls and women in particular.
- Equality in health and care services and equalisation of social health differences. The gender perspective within the health and care sector must be better integrated at all stages and in all parts of our joint health and care service. In addition, equalising social health differences is a theme that permeates the entire strategy. Obtaining more knowledge and better information for women from minority groups is particularly important for the government.
- Improved quality through increased knowledge about women’s health. Knowledge about women’s health must reach the services and be put to use. We will incorporate the gender perspective into new national recommendations and patient pathways, as well as into prevention, investigation, and treatment.
The NOK 13 million is for:
- Multicultural doula – The government is proposing to increase the allocation by NOK 2.4 million to further develop the birth mentor scheme for pregnant women with an immigrant background.
- Breastfeeding assistance – The government is proposing to increase the operating subsidy by NOK 600,000.
- Expertise on women’s health and better information:
- NOK 3 million to further bolster support for the Norwegian Research Centre for Women’s Health in 2025. The allocation will facilitate the ongoing creation of a digital portal for the dissemination of knowledge about women’s health and improve research into the health of pregnant women from minority groups.
- NOK 2 million to step up efforts to update current and produce new gender-specific information on helsenorge.no.
- NOK 2 million for investigating effective measures to improve health skills among women from minority groups.
- Free health service for women who want to talk to someone about abortion and pregnancy. The government is proposing to increase the operating subsidy to the Amathea Foundation by NOK 3 million.
The women’s health strategy contains an overview of special allocations relevant to women’s health.
Continued budgetary initiatives:
- Strategic focus on women’s health research in the Research Council of Norway: NOK 20 million
- Norwegian Research Centre for Women’s Health: NOK 15.4 million
The government has prioritised the following initiatives related to the Ministry of Health and Care Services’ budget in this government period. These funds are in addition to ordinary funding for health and care services for women:
From 2022:
- NIPT for pregnant women over the age of 35 and others with an indication for foetal diagnostics: introduced in all health regions in 2021 and covered within the allocation to regional health authorities
- Early ultrasound exam for all pregnant women: NOK 25.6 million
- Home testing for cervical cancer: NOK 29 million
- Multicultural doula: NOK 2 million
- NOK 40 million in additional funding for municipal block subsidies to strengthen and develop health centre and school health services. NOK 45 million in additional ring-fenced subsidy for health centre and school health services. Municipalities that have midwives in combined roles are given priority within the ring-fenced subsidy.
- NOK 15 million for a national competence environment for health centre and school health services.
- 200 new training positions for specialist nurses and midwives: NOK 64 million. The investment continued in 2023 with allocations for the start of 200 new roles. A total of NOK 224 million was allocated for this purpose in 2023, which has been continued in 2024.
From 2023:
- Patient-adapted basic subsidy for GPs (patients with an expected higher use of GP services trigger a higher basic subsidy, including women of childbearing age): NOK 720 million
- Electronic health card for pregnant women: NOK 26 million
- National competence service for endometriosis and adenomyosis: NOK 4 million
- Removal of the lower age limit of 16 for contraception contributions: NOK 7 million
- Nationally reinforced community department at Skien prison, NOK 15 million (in addition to the allocation from the budget of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security)
From 2024:
- Whooping cough vaccination for pregnant women: NOK 17 million
Women use GPs more than men and, to a greater extent than men, live with various illnesses such as ailments and diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Furthermore, women have a longer life expectancy and more women than men use municipal health and care services. Women are also in contact with the health service due to mental illness to a greater extent than men. Consequently, several of the initiatives under the Ministry of Health and Care Services’ areas of responsibility in the state budget that concern specific services (such as GPs or care services) or target groups, such as people with mental illnesses, largely concern women. For example, in the state budget for 2024, the government tabled the following initiatives that largely provide services to women:
- Reform on living safely at home: NOK 375 million
- General practitioner services: NOK 310 million
- Escalation plan for mental health, and prevention and treatment reform in the area of substance abuse: NOK 250 million. In addition, NOK 110 million was allocated to 24-hour mental healthcare provisions, with particular emphasis on children and young people and those with serious disorders.
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When considering the revised national budget for the 2024 budget year, the Storting (the Norwegian parliament) decided to allocate NOK 5.3 million to update current and provide new gender-specific information on helsenorge.no and to establish a digital women’s health portal for the dissemination of knowledge about women’s health, as proposed by the women’s health committee (PDF). The allocation was made as follows:
- NOK 300,000 to helsenorge.no
- NOK 5 million for a digital women’s health portal for the dissemination of knowledge