The responsibility for the failure of the health system of Moldova is borne not only by the state and the authorities, but also by the citizens who avoid paying taxes and purchasing health insurance. According to economist Veaceslav Ioniță, a healthcare system for which only 9% of the state budget revenues are allocated cannot be called a health system, IPN reports.
“When we founded the system for financing the healthcare in 2004 and started to allocate 4% of the salaries, everyone said that this is too much. Specialists said that if less than 11% is allocated for this system, it can be called as one wants, but not healthcare system. We have never been ready to pay for healthcare. Not the Government, but we paid for it. The allocations were increased to 9% and were then stopped. This is our problem,” Veaceslav Ioniță stated in the program “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
The fact that the citizens avoid purchasing health insurance policy is another problem related to the health system.
“The number of employees in the Republic of Moldova stands at slightly over 600,000, but the biggest problem resides in the fact that the rest do not want to buy health insurance. Everywhere in the world, insurance financing is secured also from other types of contributions, optional insurance. In Moldova, we have 20 million lei instead of 2-3 billion lei. Optional insurance in our country is taxed. This is absurd. The state obliges you to pay insurance, but the people do not comply. Those who want to get insurance voluntarily are taxed additionally and this is bizarre,” stated the economist.
Veaceslav Ioniță also underlined the lack of transparency in the process of accumulating revenues from medical services provided for money. There is no public report on the money accumulated from these services. The unofficial payments made in the healthcare system are also a problem.
“The people pay for services and also to the doctor and this is bribe. I call this payment outside the system. A great problem exists here, but this aspect was never discussed. The bribe paid in the health system in Moldova is estimated at 1 billion lei a year,” said Veaceaslav Ioniță, noting the authorities cut spending for the health system whenever this was possible.
As to the obligation to buy a health insurance policy imposed by the authorities on the Moldovans who return from abroad, MP Andrian Candu said that this is inadmissible.
“It does not seem normal to me when we speak about those who come from abroad. Imagine that someone who does not have a permanent place of residence here and is not a fiscal resident returns home. This returns home because of the pandemic in the country in which he had worked for the past ten years and we oblige him to pay for health insurance before getting onto the plane. He will probably stay here for a month or two and will then go back. This does not seem an ethical and correct attitude to me. We must change the attitude to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, no matter where they are,” stated Andrian Candu.
