The most expensive consumable covered by the mandatory health insurance policy for the first time last year was the transcatheter aortic heart valve prosthesis that cost about 425,000 lei. Twenty insured persons benefitted from cardiac prostheses to the total value of 8.5 million lei. The money was allocated from the mandatory health insurance funds, IPN reports.

According to the National Health Insurance Company, another expensive consumable is the cochlear implant that is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. Starting with last year, this implant has been covered by mandatory health insurance for grownups too. Such a device costs over 347,000 lei. Nineteen such implants for children and adults were financed from the mandatory health insurance funds last year.

Almost 3.5 million lei was allocated for purchasing 34 implantable cardioverter-defibrillators that are placed in the chest to detect irregular heartbeats and to deliver electric shocks, when needed, to restore a regular heart rhythm.

Among other costly consumables used frequently in hospitals that were financed last year were those for treating eye problems, for the anatomic correction of the spine and thorax in children, for shoulder prostheses, devices implanted in chronic kidney disease, etc.

A total of over 44 million lei for expensive consumables were allocated from the mandatory health insurance funds in 2021. The sum is twice higher than in 2020.