Financing Healthcare in Central and Eastern European Countries: How Far Are We from Universal Health Coverage?

After the fall of communism, the healthcare systems of Central and Eastern European countries underwent enormous transformation, resulting in departure from publicly financed healthcare. This had significant adverse effects on equity in healthcare, which are still evident. In this paper, we analyzed the role of government and households in financing healthcare in eight countries (EU-8): Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. A desk research method was applied to collect quantitative data on healthcare expenditures and qualitative data on gaps in universal health coverage. A linear regression analysis was used to analyze a trend in health expenditure over the years 2000-2018. Our results indicate that a high reliance on out-of-pocket payments persists in many EU-8 countries, and only a few countries have shown a significant downward trend over time. The gaps in universal coverage in the EU-8 countries are due to explicit rationing (a limited benefit package, patient cost sharing) and implicit mechanisms (wait times). There is need to increase the role of public financing in CEE countries through budget prioritization, reducing patient co-payments for medical products and medicines, and extending the benefit package for these goods, as well as improving the quality of care.

Antecedents of use of e-health services in Central Eastern Europe: a qualitative comparative analysis.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this paper is to identify the key conditions that positively affect the use of e-health services in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) countries. CEE countries after the political and economic transformation in 1989/90 implemented slightly different national health care models. The research question of the study is: how do the various institutional conditions at the national level affect the use of e-health services in CEE countries? METHODS: The e-health description was derived from papers indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. The data for computation were collected from the 2015 global survey by the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth. We used a narrative literature review in order to identify key terms associated to e-health and conditions for the implementation of e-health services. The search terms were "e-health" and "*" where * was particular thematic section of e-health according to WHO GOeH. The inclusion criterion was relevance of the paper to e-health and searched phase. Eligibility criteria for countries for being described as CEE countries: Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Croatia (we omitted Slovakia from the analysis because this country was not covered by the WHO Survey). We applied qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to analyse the necessary order of conditions. The dependent variable of the study is the national rate of use of e-health services. RESULTS: QCA shows that legal medical jurisdiction, teleprogramme and electronic health records supplemented by adequate training constitute critical conditions to achieve success in e-health implementation. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the more formalised a framework for e-health service delivery is, the more likely it will be used. Therefore formalisation fosters the diffusion, dissemination and implementation of e-health solutions in this area. Formalisation must be accompanied by tailored training for health care professionals and patients. Our analyses are related only to the paths of e-health implementation in CEE countries thus consequently the findings and conclusions cannot be directly applied to other countries. The limitations of this study are related the absence of a broader context of e-health development, including the development of ICT infrastructure and ICT literacy.

Planning of Polish physician workforce - Systemic inconsistencies, challenges and possible ways forward.

BACKGROUND: Poland has the lowest number of physicians per 1000 population (2.2/1000) in the EU. This is accompanied by a considerable migration rate of Polish physicians to other EU countries (estimated at above 7%). Among other consequences, this results in waiting lists and unmet health needs. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is an identification of the main challenges for physician workforce planning in Poland. METHODS: The authors analysed national and international documents, reports, official statements, publications and statistical databases. MAIN FINDINGS: In Poland health workforce planning is inadequate and insufficient. There is no formal structure and no strategy regarding human resource planning or regular forecasts for the health workforce, which results in many negative effects for the healthcare system. Currently the shortage of physicians in some specialties is becoming one of the most important reasons for limited access to care and lengthening the average wait time. CONCLUSIONS: To improve this situation operational and strategic actions should be undertaken without unnecessary delay. Effective and close cooperation between key stakeholders is needed. Health workforce planning needs to become one of the key building blocks of the Polish health system's reforms, strongly connected to the other functions of the health system. It is essential for Poland to follow available good practices in health workforce planning.