Ukrainian activists and representatives of the patients’ organizations protested near the Verkhovna Rada demanding that Ukrainian lawmakers vote for the draft laws that would support the health care reform on June 6.
The activists lay down, pretending to be dead, during a performance-art-like protest called “An Hour of Death.” About 67 patients die in Ukraine every hour due to bad or absent treatment, activists say.
The legislation that aims to give a drastic change to the country’s ineffective health care system was drafted by the team of acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun and submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.
The new legislation will change the principles of health care financing in Ukraine. When it is implemented, the money will follow the patients, which means that a hospital would get money from the budget depending on how many people actually received treatment there. Today, hospitals are financed on a non-flexible basis where a hospital’s size matters the most.
After weeks of delay, the parliament finally included four draft laws that constitute the health care reform in the agenda on June 6.
Suprun championed the decision.
“We now expect the Verkhovna Rada to support us as strongly during the voting,” she said on Facebook.
