A draft law on state financial guarantees for medical services and medicines, which was approved by Parliament in principle, contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine and deserves a presidential veto if its final version does not undergo significant changes. This has been stated by the MP from UKROP Oleksandr Dubinin.
“The bill from the so-called healthcare reform package was adopted with all possible violations of procedure rules and numerous cases of piano voting. I hope that the President of Ukraine as the guarantor of the Constitution will veto this document, as its essence directly contradicts the Article 49 of the Basic Law. This “reform” actually introduces fee-for-service medicine in Ukraine,” wrote Oleksandr Dubinin on his Facebook page.
The politician has mentioned that the minimum package of free medical services and medicines that will exist after implementation of these innovations, will not cover patients’ needs in complex medical examinations and most Ukrainians won’t be able to pay for them. Moreover, now it is not clear what services will be included to the free list, so there is a risk that the matter will be settled in manual mode. Eventually as well as the distribution of funds for the hospitals, the National Health Service of Ukraine will be in charge of.
All these drawbacks undermine perhaps the only positive moment of the reform – creation of unified treatment protocols for all physicians that will meet the European standards, is confident Oleksandr Dubinin. The MP has informed that the UKROP representatives are preparing several amendments for consideration of the bill on second reading, which will be aimed at guaranteeing the right to complete health protection of children with disabilities, Chornobyl victims, minors and seniors.
