Tiraspol, November 29. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. One of the First Medical Forum sections was devoted to the prospects of introducing compulsory medical insurance (CMI) in Pridnestrovie.
Chairman of the Supreme Council of the PMR Healthcare Committee Sergey Cheban noted that there were several health systems in the world, including the German Bismarck system, which requires compulsory health insurance. Pridnestrovie is the heir to the Semashko system in many ways. It began to work in the first decades of Soviet rule and provided an acceptable level of medical care needed to treat the most common diseases, and also provided comprehensive coverage of the population with health services. According to Sergey Cheban, such a system is expensive for the state in the current economic conditions. At the same time, with such a system, any patient can get to a specialist in one day, the speaker added.
Sergey Cheban stated that with insurance medicine, such services might be less affordable. Despite the fact that many states, including 10 countries - members of the CIS, have turned to compulsory health insurance, this system has both pros and cons.
Among the advantages are the effectiveness of medical care and access to services without reference to a residence permit, the presence of mandatory standards for the provision of medical care and a system for assessing the quality of services. The disadvantages of compulsory medical insurance are a limited list of medical services, the duration of waiting for help, and not always transparent mechanism for distributing financial resources, Sergey Cheban said.
The Head of the Health Committee recalled that since 2001, attempts had been made in Pridnestrovie to adopt a law on compulsory health insurance, but all projects had been rejected.
In the current situation of the republic economy, the compulsory medical insurance will become a heavy burden for the budget, the Head of the Parliamentary Committee said. “30 thousand citizens are engaged in material production. Plus, there are 14 thousand individual entrepreneurs. The state will have to insure all the rest at its own expense”, Sergey Cheban said., He said that this state of affairs should not become an obstacle in order to begin a gradual transition to compulsory medical insurance. “Each state has its own system, based on the financial and economic situation. In the meantime, let's start working on a project for the transition to compulsory medical insurance”, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee said.
The Deputy Minister of Health of the PMR Evgeny Kuzmin, in turn, noted that medical insurance involved a rational, logical health system. And we don’t have it yet, the Deputy Minister stated. Family medicine is also called upon to become an important element of this system, which involves the early detection of health problems and, as a result, the reduction of expenses for further treatment.
The Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, a consultant to the Higher School of Economics Vladimir Shevsky also accepted Evgeny Kuzmin`s position. “Initially, it is necessary to improve the healthcare system, otherwise all of its shortcomings can be dragged into the compulsory medical insurance”, the Russian expert emphasized.
