Private health insurance should have a definite place in the anti-crisis strategy
 In the conditions of a lack of funds that has exceeded the boundaries of the public health system, affecting, at the same time, the private operators, the fact that authorities ignore the potential of private health insurance as additional source of financing of the health care system is unacceptable, according to the CEO of SIGNAL IDUNA, Sinziana MAIOREANU.
"Many of the clinics and private hospitals, which for years have invested in Romania and which have contributed to the economic growth, now encounter financial difficulties because they no longer receive the amounts owed to them by the House of Social Insurance, some of the operators losing this way even 40% of the income. What I find disturbing though is the fact that we have reached the lowest threshold of performance exactly in full financial and political crisis", the leader of the health insurance company has said.
Thus, by stimulating the buying by the citizens of private health insurance, public units will face a smaller number of patients, while their health contributions will continue to come; in addition, private money will be injected by the insurers, as a "fee for service", both in the private health system, and in the public one, stimulating competition and increasing the quality of services.
"Also, in the conditions in which complementary private health insurance is designed to provide those services covered so far by the state insurance and that cannot be financially sustained anymore by the public system, it should benefit of the same tax regime as the one applied to the state insurance and must not represent an additional burden for the citizen", explains Sinziana MAIOREANU.
Thus, the introduction of full deductibility, for both the employer and the employee - similar to the fiscal treatment applied to private pensions -, is a necessary measure for the development of this segment. At this point, insurance premiums are deductible within the limit of EUR 250 per year, only from profit and only for employers.
"In a time when the economy falls drastically, unemployment is rising and there are few economic sectors with potential for development, private health insurance should, by its potential estimated at several hundred million EUR, be a priority and have a definite place in the anti-crisis strategy", added the CEO of SIGNAL IDUNA.
Moreover, according to a study realized this autumn by EURO HEALTH Consumer Index 2009, the health system in Romania is the weakest, after the one in Bulgaria, reaching at this moment the 32nd place out of 33 European countries.
Author: Andreea IONETE
on 09.11.2009
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