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| The Public Health Insurance System in Romania |
| (2011-10-07) |
| Last updated: 2011-10-10 13:32 EET |
Romanian healthcare is suffering from poor funding, with the public health insurance system looking a bit sickly as well. Insurers warn that by 2050, an aged society will have led to an average of 9 retirees supported by each active worker.
Romanian healthcare is in dire need of resuscitation. Although talks on the need to restructure this sector have been heard for the last 20 years, with authorities promising to change things for the better, it seems words are all Romanians have gotten so far. The critical condition of some hospitals and the drain of medical staff in search of better salaries reflect the fact that the health system has been under-funded for some time now.
Moreover, national health insurance beneficiaries are becoming more and more disgruntled with the system. According to Cristian Vladescu, president of the Public Healthcare Committee within the national Health Ministry, this is because Romanians, now EU citizens, are also looking at how things work in other European countries. Insurers also warn of the long-term effects of the current system.
According to Rangam Bir, Head of the National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies, population ageing will have led to a ratio of 9 pensioners per active worker by 2050. He also pointed out that thousands of companies in Romania owe money to the social health insurance fund, while only 40 percent of the population contributes to the system, despite everyone benefiting from it.
One solution for improving the current health insurance system would be implementing the methods used in the Netherlands. Here is Virgil Paunescu, a member of the Presidential Committee on Public Healthcare.
“The Dutch system transfers the health insurance fund to private administrators. Several insurance companies in the field compete to make up their lists of beneficiaries, after which they are reimbursed for the health coverage.”
This would allow hospitals to better administrate staff motivation policies and to improve the quality of services. For a true reform of the healthcare system, authorities in Bucharest are considering a public-private partnership. However, insurers believe that this would only transfer the problems faced by the National Health Insurance Authority to private fund administrators.
The average Romanian citizen spends 0.48 euros per year on private health insurance, while this yearly expense rises to 5 euros in Poland, 13 euros in Hungary and 28 euros in Croatia.
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