The healthcare system, again in the spotlight

Family doctors in Romania have requested that people should be allowed to benefit from healthcare services without having to use their new health insurance cards for another six months, until the end of October.

Having become mandatory as of May 1st, the card-based system is hard to implement because of a poor computerised system and the fact that not everyone has come into possession of his or her insurance card.

Unhappy with the situation, family doctors say the old system should be extended for another six months, hoping all problems will be solved until then. The head of the National Healthcare Insurance Agency Vasile Ciurchea says, however, that the definitive transition to the card-based insurance system will take place in August.

Vasile Ciurchea: “Naturally, we will continue to provide medical services to persons who are unable to produce their cards for various reasons, either because they haven’t received them or because their cards have not been issued yet, or for other reasons, but I repeat, this will not last forever. The deadline is the end of July or the beginning of August.”

Concurrently with their efforts to introduce the card-based healthcare insurance system, the authorities in Bucharest this week also discussed the problem of the shortage of doctors, who are leaving the country in search of better-paid jobs abroad. A bill is currently on Parliament’s agenda to increase incomes in the healthcare sector.

According to the health minister Nicolae Banicioiu, this bill will support medical school graduates and doctors who choose to practice medicine in Romania, despite all difficulties: “I hope Parliament will pass this bill in 2015. Senate tried to pass it last week and failed, but we have another week. I hope things will get better next week and the bill reaches the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament’s decision-making body, in June. Unless the bill passes in 2015, it will be hard to justify ourselves to doctors, especially the younger generations, who are increasingly attracted to the idea of working abroad.”

Doctors may also be allowed to supplement their incomes by giving private consultations after working hours, in the state hospitals and clinics where they are employed. The health minister is also in favour of a proposal according to which medical school graduates are to practice in Romania for five or ten years after finishing their studies before leaving abroad, while making sure EU mobility laws are observed.