RSS
Study: Romania, the EU state with lowest GDP expenses for health
Romania is the EU state with the lowest expenses for health, reaching from 5.6% of GDP in 2009, compared to the EU average of 9.9%, to just 3.7% of GDP in 2011, financing being at two thirds of the necessary minimum, according to a study published by ExpertForum (EFOR) together with Local American Working Group (LAWG) on Thursday. The study shows that, for lack of additional resources, the Romanian health system cannot offer patients quality and access to better services.
In Romania, 80% of resources allocated for health are public and 20% private. 85% of public resources are administered by the Single National Social Security Fund. In 2011 they reached 17.8 billion lei, the study shows.
At EU level, Romania is one of the countries with the lowest private health care expenses. Romania spends 0.01% of GDP for voluntary insurance, compared to an average of 0.4% in EU. Another conclusion of the study is that in the last two years the increase of consumption of compensated and free medicine was a moderate one.
In point of per capita consumption, expressed in euro Romania registers the lowest value in EU, 40% lower than Poland, Lithuania or Estonia, which is 156 euro compared to 235-255 euro in 2009.
“In this context, the claw back tax on medicine producers and importers, as it was modified in 2011, is unjustified and represents an instrument of covering the deficits of the health care fund,” the authors of the study say.