On May 1, a novel vaccine insurance law came into force in Estonia. Under the new law, a patient or their relatives can apply for compensation for personal injury caused by severe vaccination-related complications. LEXTAL’s attorneys-at-law Olavi-Jüri Luik and Rauno Kinkar played a key role in drafting the vaccine insurance law (medicines act).

Below is an intro to why the new insurance model is necessary and also how to apply for compensation in case of side effects.

Why Vaccine Insurance?

Severe complications from vaccination are statistically infrequent. However, side effects still exist. The advantage of vaccine insurance is that it helps to reduce people’s fears about vaccination. To lessen these fears, vaccine insurance has been introduced in about 30 countries worldwide. The advantage of insurance is that a person does not have to enter into a dispute with a vaccine manufacturer who is economically more capable and as such a difficult opponent.

The safety of COVID-19 vaccines is very high – serious injuries are rare. For example, as of the morning of 22 November, more than 1.6 million doses of vaccine had been administered in Estonia, of which only 0.37% of doses (5950 notifications) were reported to the State Agency of Medicines regarding all possible side effects and vaccine ineffectiveness. There are even fewer reports – 237 – describing at least one serious suspected adverse reaction with a temporal relationship. The most common side effects are pain at the injection site, tiredness, and fever, which go away on their own within a few days.

Katrin Orav
Attorney-at-law at LEXTAL Law Firm

As the wedding date is set, the future spouses start to think about the wedding venue, catering, music. In addition, they have to decide on the proprietary relationship which will apply to them once they are married. The proprietary relationship has to be selected at the time of filling in the marriage application. Which proprietary relationship to choose and how is the shared family home protected depending on the chosen proprietary relationships?