CNAS could move under the supervision of Health Ministry

The national health insurance body CNAS could move under the supervision of the Public Health Ministry after a compromise was reached between the PD-L and UDMR, both members of the governing coalition. Ritli Ladislau, who was appointed the new health minister on August 17, will also coordinate the activity of the CNAS. The new minister was proposed by the Hungarian party UDMR.

The issue of CNSAS has prompted the resignation of the previous health minister and caused mounting tensions in the center-right coalition government. Former public health minister, Attila Cseke, cited the issue of fund management as a root cause of his resignation. According to Cseke, the public healthcare budget is disproportionately shared. The ministry manages 15 percent of the EUR 4 billion coffers, while the national health insurance body CNAS controls 85 percent of the funds.

According to Prime Minister Emil Boc, putting the CNAS under the Health Ministry’s supervision will ensure the better coordination of policies between the two entities. Lucian Duta, president of the CNAS, has refrained from any comment on the shift in subordination from the government to the Health Ministry, stating that no official document had been brought to his attention.

President Traian Basescu appeared last week on the public television station, stating that the CNAS should remain autonomous in order to prevent the recentralization of the public healthcare system, a move he labeled a huge leap backwards. Basescu added that under the current healthcare system, transactions are prone to fraud, doctors sign hundreds of prescriptions a day and politicians secure contracts with the national insurance body.

Basescu also said that hospitals should rely less on the state budget and adopt the legal and management framework of non-profit organizations or corporations, in a move to make the medical process leaner. These points are included in the new public healthcare law that is intended to remove the state monopoly on health services and allow private insurers to expand their healthcare insurance business.