The Budget resolution of Ukraine provides additional UAH 25 billion on healthcare reform by 2020. This year UAH 55.5 billion will be allotted to primary medical care. By 2020, this figure will increase to UAH 81.2 billion. The figures were announced by Pavlo Kovtoniuk, Deputy Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine at a briefing held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “The money is for the implementation of healthcare reform. It is allotted to pay for medical services on a ‘money follows the patient’ principle,” he said.
The Budget resolution stipulates a change in the financing of primary healthcare. By 2020, the rate per person will increase to UAH 450. “For medical practice with 2,000 patients, this means UAH 900,000 per year. Primary medicine has never seen such figures before. Rates in rural areas will be the same, and in mountainous areas – even a little higher,” explained Mr. Kovtoniuk. This rate includes work of doctors and nurses, supplies, non-prescription medicines prescription, and basic tests.
To go to a new model of primary care funding, the Parliament should vote the necessary laws. The second reading is scheduled for the week after July 10. “This will enable us to prepare a primary level so that January 1, 2018 would mark the beginning of getting money on a new ‘money follows the patient’ principle,” said Mr. Kovtoniuk.
