Media reports earlier in the week revealed that the Health Insurance Fund had hired out a South Estonian manor house, used as a hotel, for its summer days event, with the reported cost potentially stretching into six figures.

This raised eyebrows given the need to make cuts, soaring inflation, and the cash-strapped nature of the health sector.

Joller, whose area of responsibility the health fund falls under, said only one side of the story has so far come out.

"Maybe there are some political orders behind this – only those pulling the strings know that – but we will draw our own conclusions, and again, I sincerely express regret to all the people who feel that we have acted wrongly," Joller told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Joller noted there is nothing to be condemned about the agency having a summer event at all.

"The question is simply how it gets done, at what time it is done, and what the context is. We are currently in a healthcare crisis, but this was a very exclusive party. Understandably, it is not at all a good look. Another problem for me is the concealment, which journalists have outlined," Joller added.

Joller has called an off-schedule Health Insurance Fund supervisory board meeting for Friday. "The Health Insurance Fund uses taxpayer money and accordingly, expenditures must be reasonable and transparent," she said.

The board says it also wants to receive a detailed overview from management of the fund's operating costs, including rent.

Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200), the responsibility lies with the leadership of the Health Insurance Fund, who do not grasp the state of the Health Fund or the national budget.

"The public's sense of justice has been seriously violated – and not only that, also the [sense of justice of] politicians. I, too, felt that the sense of justice was violated, as all the effort that has gone into the state budget situation, this discredits the entire government's work. I think responsibility must be taken here, but the issue is not just about this event; the issue is the general state of the Health Insurance Fund today," Kallas said.

Following media reports of the summer event Tuesday evening, Center Party chair Mihhail Kõlvart called for Joller's resignation. Joller said she has no intention of resigning, as the decision on the Health Insurance Fund's summer event was not made on her watch, but before she was made minister in March.

Prime Minister Kristen Michal suggested that the Health Insurance Fund's board have a reshuffle, a suggestion he had made back in 2018. Since then, the agency had changed its name, from Haigekassa to Tervisekassa, but, the prime minister stated in a social media post, little else had changed.

The health fund's summer event was held on the last day of July at the Wagenküll manor spa, a plush hotel housed in the historic Taagapera manor in Valga County, close to the Latvian border.

Õhtuleht reported the event's cost at potentially over €100,000, though Rein Laane, the health fund's director, said that it was "definitely" lower than that. The agency is due to publish the exact cost on Friday.

The prime minister did not wish to give comment to "Aktuaalne Kaamera" on the matter, saying via a spokesperson that he had expressed his opinion on social media, and that the official government line will come via the Minister of Social Affairs.

Joller herself sits on that supervisory board, as does Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (Reform). Stakeholder representatives are Ulvi Tammer-Jäätes, a member of the board of the Estonian chamber of disabled people, and Elle Pütsepp, a member of the Estonian Trade Union Confederation, Hando Sutter,head of the Estonian Employers' Confederation, and Andi Kasak, a member of the same confederation.

 The Health Insurance Fund is a state agency which covers health costs and incapacity and other benefits, the organization says on its website.

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