Chisinau, December 22 (Infotag). The association of small businesses of Moldova put forward the idea of establishing several medical insurance companies (instead of one) at a news conference in Infotag Wednesday; in their view, the measure should stimulate competition on the market and ensure fair distribution of public funds. The Association Chairman Eugen Roscovan was adamant the existing medical insurance system has too many loopholes. “(Under this system), all takings from sales of insurance polices are held on the National Medical Insurance Company’s accounts and utilized ineffectively, which gives the administrators a chance to ‘dip’ into public funds,” he said. With several MI companies in place, the amount of services covered by the insurance polices will increase and their quality will improve, Roscovan held. In his turn, Arcady Kovalev, MD from Singera town, said the introduction of medical insurance system in Moldova was premature. “The population was ill-informed about their rights and the services covered by MI polices, which created a chaos. Given the meager salaries of the medical personnel – around 600 lei a month, the MI patients are still forced to pay extras for their medicine and treatment,” he added. In his view, the government should now create a setting for the development of private medicine. “High-income patients can afford expensive private treatment and therefore would create benefits for both, the private medical sector and the national economy. The government should also establish a well-supervised free healthcare system – similar to the Red Cross – for the low-income patients and the unemployed.”