The Verkhovna Rada has adopted bill No. 6327 in its first reading on state financial guarantees for providing medical services and medicines, which is part of the country’s medical reform package.
The legislative initiative was supported by 227 Rada members at a plenary parliamentary session on June 8, the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency has reported.
The bill states that citizens will be entitled to a guaranteed package of medicines at the expense of budget funds.
It also stipulates that a state non-profit agency will be engaged in the development of medical care standards, assessment of medical technologies and accreditation of health care facilities in keeping with the procedures to be determined by the Cabinet of Ministers.
The draft law contains requirements for clinical procedures, namely these are clinical protocols nowadays.
Emergency, primary and palliative healthcare will be covered with budget funds, head of the Rada social policy committee Lyudmila Denisova said.
“We’re switching over to international standards of medical treatment and diagnosis … a national health service whose operator we’re creating will pay from the treasury accounts to the hospital that a person has chosen and where he or she has received high-quality services. This is the “Money Follows the Patient” principle,” Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun said when introducing the draft medical reform in parliament prior to voting on June 8.
As was reported before, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on June 6 included into its agenda bills for reforming the country’s health care system, namely bills No. 6327 and 6327-1 (bill on state financing guarantees for medical services and medicines, submitted by the government and lawmakers), as well as bills No. 6329 and 6329-1, which would amend Ukraine’s Budget Code.
The draft medical reform provides for the introduction of official co-payment for secondary (specialized) and tertiary (highly specialized) medical services starting from 2018. According to the explanatory note, the financing reform of the health sector will last from 2018 to 2021.
The bill aims to reduce the share of informal private payments for medical services. The bill also suggests the transition to the purchase of medical services through a single national customer from 2018. According to the authors of the bill, the share of spending at the expense of official co-payment by 2021 will reach 13.3 percent of total expenditures of the healthcare sector.
