You're reading: Lawmakers start health reform; divisions remain

With moans, groans and claims of illegal voting, Ukrainian lawmakers on June 8 approved a bill on state financial guarantees for medical services in the first reading. By doing so, they at last started the process of health care reform in Ukraine.

After a heated debate, parliament garnered 227 votes – just one more than the 226 needed – to pass the bill on the third attempt. Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy was able to force the vote through only after several amendments from lawmakers were included in the bill.

However, parliament supported only one of the two new health care reform bills, rejecting a supporting bill on changes to the state budget that would allow money for state financial guarantees to be allocated.

Lawmakers also rejected two alternative health care reform bills authored by former Health Minister Oleh Musiy that opposed the plans of Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun.

Ukraine’s acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun speaks at a rally in front of the Verkhovna Rada on June 6 in Kyiv.

Ukraine’s acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun speaks at a rally in front of the Verkhovna Rada on June 6 in Kyiv. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

Olga Bogomolets, a Bloc of Petro Poroshenko lawmaker and head of the health care committee in the Rada, said Suprun’s bill “throws Ukrainian patients under tanks. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Health Ministry didn’t name the numbers, the sums people will have to pay for medical services, and neither did they specify what exactly is going to be included in the guaranteed package of medical help provided by the state,” Bogomolets said.

The lawmaker added that, if the bill becomes law, Ukrainians would have to pay for urgent surgery to be admitted to hospitals.

But Victoria Syumar, a People’s Front party lawmaker, said that there has been no free medical services for a long time in Ukraine. People get them only on paper, while in reality they are forced to pay “charitable contributions” to hospitals.

“Just try to find free antiseptic or a bandage in a Ukrainian hospital, and I swear, you won’t be able to,” Syumar said.

Bogomolets said she was ready to take over responsibility for reform, and asked to be given a month to improve the health care bills in the health committee of the Rada.
Suprun said she was grateful for all the criticism and promised to include all reasonable changes. However, she asked lawmakers to vote for it anyway, saying health care reform must start as soon as possible in Ukraine.

“We could continue to search for an ideal model, but the current health care system is in ruins,” Suprun said during her speech in the Verkhovna Rada on June 8.

“It’s time to tell the truth. There are no free medical services in Ukraine. We give bribes for every other procedure, even for childbirth. This will end with the new reform.”
After the lawmakers voted for the bill, Oleh Lyashko, the Radical Party leader, claimed that several lawmakers were “piano voting” in favor of the reform and demanded that the result of the vote be canceled. “Piano voting” is the illegal practice of lawmakers casting votes for absent colleagues, so called because it involves stretching over to press voting buttons on neighboring voting consoles, as if making a wide stretch while playing a piano.

“You force us to vote in favor of the reform, basically twisting our arms behind our backs. You call yourself pro-Western politicians and close your eyes to piano voting,” Lyashko said.
He added that Suprun’s reform would kill many Ukrainians, as it took away the right for free medical services from them.

“You should vote in favor of Ukrainian people not the International Monetary Fund to give you another loan,” Lyashko said.

Suprun’s draft medical reform permits official co-paying for medical services starting in 2018. The bill aims to reduce the practice of making unofficial private payments for medical services, which is widespread in hospitals and medical centers all over Ukraine.