Health Insurance House's Baciu: Authorities must offer insured Romanians equal access to medical services
The authorities must offer insured Romanians equal access to medical services, regardless of the area where they are, the president of the National Health Insurance House (CNAS), Andrei Baciu said on Tuesday.
"Our obligation is, first of all, to ensure that there is equal, non-discriminatory access to medical services, to everything that medicine and science allows for all insured persons," Baciu told a conference organized on the occasion of World Diabetes Day.
He mentioned that there are undiagnosed diabetes patients, due to poor access to information and diagnosis.
According to him, 1,120,000 patients benefit from the National Diabetes Program. "It is the programme with the largest number of patients that the National Health Insurance House offers. In terms of funds allocated from the entire budget, it is the second largest, after the oncology one," stated the CNAS president.
Baciu reminded that, in 2022, access to materials and equipment necessary to treat patients with diabetes was decentralized.
Presidential advisor Diana Paun drew attention to the fact that people with diabetes require continuous care and support to manage the disease and avoid complications.
According to her, in many cases, access to a correct diagnosis remains "a major challenge" and, as a result, the mortality rate remains high due to diabetes complications.
Paun added that prevention and health education remain topical topics, and patients must be well informed, given that knowing the risks is the first step in preventing diabetes.
According to the State Counselor at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Carmen Orban, increasing patients' access to treatments by introducing new molecules in the lists of compensated and free medicines and the development of the National Diabetes Program must remain "constant priorities."
"It is also necessary to improve the way in which the type 2 diabetes sub-programme works, which ensures children's access to continuous glucose monitoring systems and to insulin pump systems with sensors for monitoring it, as well as the consumables related to these devices- uri. (...) Relevant institutions together with non-governmental organizations and professionals in the system must (...) carry out continuous and sustained campaigns to increase the population's awareness of this condition," Orban said.