Business news from Ukraine

FULL TRANSITION TO INSURANCE MEDICINE IN UKRAINE TO TAKE PLACE IN 2020 – DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ROZENKO

3 October , 2016  

KYIV. Oct 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Full transition to insurance medicine and the medical reform in Ukraine should take place within three years: a gradual transition to the application of the principles of health insurance is to begin in 2017, while the final model to be formed in 2020, the press service of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko said.

“According to our program, the full transition to insurance medicine and medical reform should take place within three years in order not to shock either people or the doctors’ community,” the press service quoted Rozenko.

The deputy premier said that the health system is switching from the principle of financing of hospital beds to the principle of financing services provided to patients. The mechanism of “money follows the patient” is introduced.

“This process is complicated and painful. It is not fully accepted by the medical community as it is necessary to go through the competition, improve the quality of services,” Rozenko said.

In early September Deputy Health Minister Pavlo Kovtoniuk said the Ministry of Health plans to introduce a plan of implementation a national health insurance system in Ukraine in 2017. It involves changes in the legal framework, including laws, the adoption of the Cabinet decisions.

According to Ukrainian insurers – participants of the sixteenth International Financial Forum, which was held in Odesa on September 14-17, 2016, voluntary development and implementation of compulsory health insurance are in need of stimulation, in particular, by supporting bill No. 4981 “On Compulsory Social Health Insurance in Ukraine”, organizing its promotion and refinement in the relevant committees of the Verkhovna Rada.

Head of the Health Committee of the Verkhovna Rada Olha Bohomolets registered alternative bill No. 4981-2 in the Verkhovna Rada in early August. The bill provides for the introduction of compulsory state social health insurance in Ukraine from January 1, 2018.