In 2014, the state budget’s obligations to the mandatory health insurance funds were reduced, especially by the correction made through the assumption of responsibility by the Government. As a result, the incomes were decreased by about 70 million lei. The state budget allocations to the health insurance funds were transferred with delay and this had a negative impact on budget fulfillment. These are some of the shortcomings identified by the Parliament’s commission on social protection, health and family, which examined the reports on the use of the 2014 health insurance funds and state social insurance budget, IPN reports.
In a communique, the commissions says a number of lawmakers stated their objections to the way the fund for developing and modernizing the public providers of medical services was used and reiterated that its purpose is first of all to improve the quality of services provided to patients and optimize the current costs of the system so as to meet patients’ expectations. Analyzing the system’s remuneration costs, the commission’s members identified discrepancies between the rise in the salaries of managers of medical-sanitary intuitions (about 18% last year) and the pay rise for doctors (7.4%). They pleaded for a uniform increase in the interests of all the categories of salary earners.
As to the compensated drugs, the MPs said many of the drugstores avoid signing contracts for providing these medicines because they do not want to be inspected. As a result, a large number of consumers, especially from rural areas, do not enjoy unhampered access to compensated drugs. The MPs also expressed concerns about the financial situation of the medical-sanitary institutions, whose credit debts last year came to about 445 million lei. The National Clinical Hospital, the Oncology Institute and the Emergency Medicine Institute have the largest debts event if their budgets last year were larger than a year before.
The commission also examined the report on the fulfillment of the 2014 state social insurance budget and asked for a number of details that are to be presented in Parliament. There was discussed the decrease in the number of employees and in the incomes collected into the state social insurance budget. The lawmakers noted that the social costs grow at a higher pace than the incomes and this leads to a larger deficit.
The MPs also said that the sudden rise, of almost 60%, in the costs for paying annuity and pensions to judges exerted additional pressure on the budget. They underlined the importance of optimizing particular costs.
