The Ministry of Health is working on the draft State Budget for 2017 in terms of financing the health care system with parliamentary committees and factions.

The draft of the main financial document of the country increases the total expenditures of the State budget on health care in comparison with the budget of the current year by UAH 3.4 billion, or by 6%. The proposed financing of medicine as a share of the total expenditures of the state budget is 7.7%.

The draft of the State Budget for the next year proposes to increase the volume of medical subsidies for the regions by UAH 2.4 billion or by 5.3%. It is important that the volume of the medical subvention was determined without taking into account the expenses for the payment of communal services of medical institutions. It is assumed that their payment will be made at the expense of local budgets’ own revenues. On the one hand, the involvement of local budgets in the co-financing of medicine is an opportunity to increase the salary fund, expand the purchase of medicines and improve food in hospitals. On the other hand, the Ministry of Health considers this approach risky, since the financial capabilities of communities are very different. The increase in the financial resources of local budgets as a result of successful fiscal decentralization in 2015 is concentrated mostly in cities and areas with better access to transport and economic infrastructure. For many communities (mostly, these are isolated rural areas), the allocation of funds for the payment of communal services in medicine may prove to be a difficult task.

In order to prevent the emergence of crisis situations, the State Budget draft provides for the allocation of UAH 15 billion to communities next year. stabilization subsidy to smooth out disparities in their fiscal capacity. At the same time, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine insists on finding, in the medium term, a more sustainable and effective solution for financing medical services at the same level for all communities – because the protection of citizens’ health is a function where the central government remains fully responsible for ensuring equal access of every citizen to a guaranteed level of assistance. The Ministry of Health is currently working on such a reform.

In terms of providing citizens with medicines, the draft Budget 2017 increases spending on their purchase by UAH 2 billion. or by 50.6%. At the same time, the growth of these expenditures is also expected as a percentage of the total expenditures of the State Budget (from 0.6% to 0.8%) and compared to GDP (from 0.18% to 0.23%). The biggest increase is planned in purchases of drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis, which expanded by 2.4 times or by 141%, and drugs for HIV/AIDS patients (increased by 2.3 times or by 133%). Expenditures for the purchase of medicines for children’s oncology increased by more than one and a half times (by 58%).

A problematic aspect of the draft budget is that in 2017, it is also proposed to transfer funding to 29 institutions that were under the authority of the Ministry of Health for the financing of local budgets. These institutions include dispensaries and hospitals that provide highly specialized services (for example, services related to radiation protection of the population, the development of telemedicine), as well as sanatoriums that offer unique opportunities for treatment and rehabilitation. The Ministry of Health is aware of the need to seriously reform most of these institutions and improve the efficiency of their work. However, transferring them to local budgets does not seem to be the optimal solution: under the conditions of proper structural changes, these institutions should be available to citizens of the entire country. Currently, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine defends the position regarding the allocation of funding for the identified 29 institutions in the coming 2017.

Published based on the materials of moz.gov.ua