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Romanian Patients To Pay For All Healthcare Services As Of April 1

Romanian family doctors unanimously decided Saturday not to sign the frame contract on the provision of healthcare services in 2009, which forces patients to pay for examinations, compensated medicine prescriptions and medical tests starting April 1.
Romanian Patients To Pay For All Healthcare Services As Of April 1
28 mart. 2009, 19:30, English

Family doctors refused to sign the contract, saying it leaves out their proposals and includes stipulations that breach both their rights and the Constitution.

Rodica Tanasescu, head of the National Family Medicine Society (SNMF), said family doctors call for amendments on the contract and stressed they would only sign the contract if it includes reasonable stipulations. Moreover, they pointed out that they had not been consulted on the matter.
 
Tanasescu added that patients could be exempted from paying for healthcare services until problems are solved, by means of an additional act regulating the functioning of medical centers.
 
The 2009 frame contract comes into force on April 1 when hospitals are obliged to post their expenses on the Health Ministry’s website and family doctors to work overtime in emergency medical units.
 
The health committees of the two chambers of Parliament approved mid-February the budget allotted to the Ministry of Health for 2009. Health minister Ion Bazac said the budget is 0.2% higher than last year and he hopes to receive more money at a future budget revision.
 
Early February, family doctors announced in a press statement that they are unhappy with the funds assigned to primary medical assistance and requested that at the least, the budget be kept at 2008’s level, in order to avoid driving practices to bankruptcy.
 
The Family Medicine Society and the National Family Doctors’ Employers Association claimed, in a common statement, that the funds allotted to primary medical assistance are 40.69% lower than in 2008, and the reduction is “the most drastic” among all other segments in the healthcare system and the entire state budget.