New Regulations for the Healthcare Sector
A new framework agreement on healthcare has been presented for public debate.
Valentin Țigău, 30.01.2013, 13:36
The healthcare framework agreement has been made available for public debate. Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu has called for a far-reaching public consultation that should reflect the views of as many representatives of patients’ associations, private insurance companies and employers’ associations as possible. Minister Nicolaescu has warned that hospital managers will be immediately sacked if found out that patients still have to buy their own medicine or bribe hospital officials for access to medical care after the new framework agreement comes into effect. The Romanian official also said audits would be carried out regularly, while managers of hospitals whose debt has been running for three consecutive months would be replaced. In 2013 the Health Ministry intends to pay off a large part of the outstanding debt overstraining the healthcare sector in recent years.
As regards the co-payment upon hospital admission, a system which is due to come into effect on March 1st, the Health Minister said this would amount to a frugal sum of money. The measure however has inflamed patients’ associations. The Coalition of Organisations of Patients Suffering from Chronic Diseases sees the co-payment system as a breach of the Healthcare Law, putting patients with low incomes at a disadvantage. Besides, the Government’s commitment to the IMF to introduce the co-payment system would also go against what Minister Nicolaescu declared at the beginning of 2013, when he said Romania was not prepared to switch to a different system that would incorporate co-payment.
The Romanian College of Physicians was also outraged by the statement of the head of the IMF delegation to Bucharest, Erik de Vrijer, who said patients should pay 2.3 euros for every day of hospital care. The College considers the IMF official has no expertise with respect to how healthcare systems operate, and if the proposal were to be accepted, over 80% of Romanians will have a very hard time accessing healthcare services. Many of the provisions laid out in the framework agreement for providing healthcare services are connected to and even conditional on the state budget for 2013, which has been submitted to Parliament for approval.
The budget bill has earmarked 3.7 billion lei for covering debt and 44 million lei for the procurement of stat-of-the-art medical equipment. According to Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu, the 2013 healthcare budget, which is higher than in 2012, is indicative of what Romania can do at the time being to maintain healthcare among its priorities.
