​OMBUDSMAN TO START INVESTIGATION OF SHARP MEDICAL SERVICE TARIFF GROWING

People’s Ombudsman Mihai Cotorobai announced that he is going to initiate an investigation in connection with the sharp growth of tariffs on medical services.

“Medical assistance will become an impermissible luxury for thousands of people from socially vulnerable layers of population. This price growth will considerably affect the implementation of the right to health protection. This concerns not only people, who do not have medical insurance policy, but also those, who have it, as the tariffs on services and medical investigations that are not covered by the policy have also considerably grown”, Cotorobai said.

According to him, before the raising of medical service prices, many people were not addressing to doctor due to lack of money or due to corruption in healthcare system.

“I do not exclude the need to bring the cost of services in accordance with real expenditures. But these measures should be adopted in such a way that they not to influence much on implementation of citizens’ right to medical services”, the Ombudsman said.

Tariffs on medical sanitary services were raised according to the Government’s decree. The explanatory note says that additional funds, received from raising of tariffs, were aimed at compensating real costs. Some types of medical services and investigations went up by 4-5 times year to date.