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Rise in pay will raise issue of paid medical treatment, Lukashenka says

A rise in pay will raise the issue of a change over to paid medical treatment, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said Monday while meeting with Health Minister Vasil Zharko, BelaPAN said.

According to the presidential press office, the meeting focused on a bill of amendments to the public health law. Mr. Lukashenka was surprised that the amendments would require "certain spending from the state budget," the press office said.

"Firstly, I'm surprised because the minister and some government officials propose shifting part of public health spending to people, whereas this bill proposes spending additional funds on certain procedures in inpatient hospitals and so on. This is out of tune with your suggestions," the Belarusian leader said.

Mr. Lukashenka noted that Belarusians did not care about their health. "One can get drunk and break his leg and the government has to treat that man at other people's expense," he said. "A smoker can significantly damage his health too."

Mr. Lukashenka pointed out that everyone should pay more attention to a healthy lifestyle.

In Western countries, people pay for medical services, whereas Belarusians are not ready for that yet, he noted. "Of course, we cannot order people to fully pay for their time in a hospital, for their treatment and so on. We are not ready for this." he said. However, he noted, a rise in pay would eventually raise the question of a change-over to paid medical treatment.

Mr. Lukashenka questioned the need to increase public health spending. “It is necessary to stop at the current level, the level we have today,” he said. “We should provide quality treatment to our people and ensure proper care for them."

It is necessary to think "whether or not these amendments may cause a chain reaction,” he said. “Today we support doctors and tomorrow teachers may demand the same support. So you have to be very careful about these things, which lead to trillions of rubels, not even billions, being spent to finance these measures."

Mr. Zharko said that the health ministry made a consistent effort to ensure efficient spending on the maintenance and modernization of hospitals. He noted that the bill provided for some measures aimed at preventing diseases, and ensuring reproductive health protection and medical secrecy. In particular, the bill would expand the list of persons who may be given confidential information and the list of medical services that may be provided at home. The amendments would also require that those who have damaged their health as a result of alcohol or narcotic drug abuse should repay the money spent on their treatment.