The healthcare reform will not improve the sector significantly because its funding is not enough for the tasks declared. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin commenting on the Healthcare Ministry’s plans to launch the reform of secondary and tertiary care from April 1.

“The healthcare funding remains at 3 percent of GDP level instead of 5 percent as provided by the law. This is why the fees for surgeries and services are based on material availability instead of their real cost. And it’s not possible to increase salaries for medical practitioners. Moreover, many hospitals will have to close given current level of the sector funding,” Lovochkin said.

The politician added that hospital service prices do not include inflation rates, the increase of minimum wage, the rise in medicine prices and utility costs. As a result, they only cover 10 to 30 percent of the real costs incurred by the hospitals. And the rest of the expenses must be covered by patients.

“How can we expand the healthcare reform to the secondary and tertiary care when the problems of the primary care have not been solved? Despite statements of a 1.6-times increase of funds allocated per person, the hospitals will not get more money due to lower correcting age ratios. Therefore, OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE insists that all experiments with Ukraine’s healthcare system must be stopped until its funding gets to the required level,” Lovochkin said.