The daily paper Jurnalul National writes that Raed Arafat is the first victim of the healthcare bill, saying he resigned to be able to defend more efficiently the emergency service. Romania Libera wonders what is the real stake of this war? The newspaper notes that although the new provisions of the healthcare bill have been under debate for a week, it is still unclear how the privatisation of the emergency system will benefit the insured people or why emergency medicine has suddenly become a priority, given that there are other areas with much more problems in the Romanian healthcare system, such as organ transplants and family medicine.

Romania Libera carries some of the views of the initiators of the new healthcare bill who say that by introducing competition in this area, there will be more ambulance cars, both public and private, which would respond better to emergency calls. Critics say, however, that private companies will prefer the easy cases and the calls coming from the big cities which do not imply major costs related to drugs and equipment. According to the newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, the recipe for the cohabitation between the state and the private sector is for private ambulance cars to deal only with the easy cases.

On the other hand, the resignation of Raed Arafat, who is viewed as one of the few honest professionals in this government, is not justified at the moment, the Gandul writes. According to this daily, Arafat’s resignation as a matter of honour from the position of under-secretary of state implies he has no hope of being able to change anything.

SMURD has been working sufficiently coherently and efficiently, writes the publication, which goes on to wonder: can the weakening or even dissolution of something that works become a principle of reform? Are the government and president Traian Basescu, who has harshly criticised Arafat for his public objections to the new healthcare bill, willing to guarantee that people will not die before their time when the new emergency system becomes operational?