The Crisis Impact on the Romanian Health System and Population Health

The global crisis has affected the Romanian economy during 2008-2014 being a key factor with a significant negative impact on the health system and population health. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the crisis upon the Romanian health system as the main socio-economic determinant of population health and to explore the results of the austerity policies meant to control the negative consequences of the crisis. We have investigated the crisis impact on socioeconomic determinants of health taking into account the main macro-economic indicators registered during crisis period of time. In our analysis we used the population health indicators as health system outcomes. Romania occupied the last place in the EU as regards the health spending share from the Gross Domestic Product, with 5.68% in 2009, while the EU health spending grew up towards 8.9%. We pinpoint the decrease of the nominal spending of hospitals in 2010 comparing with 2009 (-10.55%), after the closure of 69 public hospitals. In 2009, the family medicine received a budget 24% lower than in 2008. The allocated revenue for medicine consumption in 2009 was of 2.18 billion RON (with 29.5% less than in 2008). The degradation of the health of the population was caused by the Romanian significant decrease of the economy, the economic crisis and its negative impact upon the Romanian health system. These factors generated the depreciation of the population health, the underfunding of the health system and impairment of the quality of health services.