A sum of 4.41 billion lei was planned in the national public budget this year for the healthcare sector, as against 3.37 billion in 2008. By August, the National Health Insurance Company managed to meet all the payments to the institutions providing medical services. The figures were presented by Mihai Ciocanu, the director general of the National Health Management Center, at a thematic conference held as part of the specialized exhibition “MoldMEDIZIN&MoldDENT”, Info-Prim Neo reports. However, Ciocanu said that the reduction in the revenues collected into the state budget led to the accumulation of a debt of about 500 million lei to the National Mandatory Health Insurance Fund. The number of persons that purchase health policies has decreased, while some economic entities encounter difficulties in paying contributions to the Fund. The deficit on this segment amounts to about 700 million lei. Specialists in financial management and the managers of medical institutions who gave speeches at the conference consider that the only solution would be to optimize the use of the resources, without diminishing the volume of the medical services provided. They proposed instituting rational norms on the use of water, energy and other resources. According to them, the costs of paying salaries could be decreased by using the auxiliary personnel in a more efficient way. The patients treated now in hospitals make up 53% of all the patients, as opposed to 80% several years earlier. However, in many European countries this figure is 45%, while in some countries even 28- 27%. “This fact shows that the primary and secondary prophylaxis work in our country is not yet a priority, especially the secondary prophylaxis work, i.e. the monitoring of the persons that got a disease. Studies show that 18% of the hospitalized patients could receive ambulatory treatment if they abandon the unwholesome practices and have a healthy lifestyle,” Mihai Ciocanu said. He also said that 40% of the costs for healthcare, including those covered from patients’ pockets, go on medications. In most of the European countries, this figure is much lower, even 10%. This is due to the high price of the drugs and the fact that the doctors prefer to prescribe “long lists of medicines, while the patients blindly believe that the medications can work miracles.” It was also mentioned that the allocations from the national public budget for healthcare (3.37 billion lei) cover only 52% of the spending. The rest is covered by the patients.