Healthcare: Romania's deeply imbalanced healthcare financing system-less than 6 ml employees carry the burden for 16 ml people

Less than six million Romanian employees pay out 10 percent of their earnings to ensure medical services for 16 million people, representatives of the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS) argue in a report published on Sunday."Less than 6 million employees in Romania provide approximately 70 percent of the financing of medical services for 16 million insured persons and another three million beneficiaries of minimum packages. With the upcoming protest that we will organize on Monday, May 13, in front of the Romanian Government's headquarters under the slogan 'Respect for work and those who work! Romanian workers no longer want to be the guinea pigs for fiscal experiments!," the National Trade Union Bloc brings to the public's attention the burden carried by Romanian employees who provide 69 percent of the total revenues to the health insurance fund, while the Romanian state provides the most meagre financing in the European Union for the mandatory health insurance system. (...) It should be noted that Romania has approximately 16.3 million insured persons who benefit from medical services, to whom approximately 3.7 million uninsured add, who are eligible only for the minimal package. Of the 16.3 million insured, approximately 3.6 million are children under the age of 19, and 4.8-plus million are over 60. Out of roughly 8 million in the 19 - 60 age bracket, some 6 million paid contributions to the health insurance system," reads the release of the trade union organization.BNS goes on to note that in the past year, 5.2 percent of Romanians did not have access to medical assistance for reasons related to financing, the long waiting lists, or the remoteness of medical facilities, and "the situation is deteriorating from one year to the next, with the the percentage of the medically deprived being twice the European average.""Relative to GDP, Romania provides the most meagre financing for the health system. In 2021, Romania's health care allocation was approximately 5.4 percent of GDP, while European states provide much more substantial financing. In 2023, revenues to the health insurance fund represented approximately 3.7 percent of GDP. According to Eurostat, in no European country is the public financing for the mandatory health insurance system below 5.5 percent. Europe-wide, employees only provide a small share of the financing for health insurance, usually about a third of the revenues to the mandatory health care schemes. In Romania, employees provide 69 percent of the total revenues of the health insurance fund," BNS notes."The health insurance contribution is part of the salary income tax, standing at roughly a quarter of the approximately 42 percent tax, with the employee carrying an overwhelming share of the fiscal burden. Romanian employees can no longer bear this burden that compels them to shell out almost half of their income for services with universal addressability," the release states.