Public Health Fakes: Doctors will not receive their salary due to the lack of external financial assistance. Issue #87

On the internet, information is being circulated claiming that the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, is lying about the timely payment of salaries to teachers and doctors in 2024, and that pension indexing will take place in March as prescribed by law. Propagandists add that recently, Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych admitted the possibility of canceling payments in case Western aid does not arrive, and Minister of Economy Svyrydenko spoke about the potential delay in payments.

What’s the reality?

Accusations of lying about the payment of salaries to healthcare workers are unfounded. We did not find any statements from the head of the Ministry of Social Policy, Oksana Zholnovych, regarding the delay in payment of salaries for doctors or other public sector employees. She mentioned that there might be difficulties with pension indexing. However, the payment of base amounts will definitely occur, and all planned increases in social benefits are also provided for.

The Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Yuliia Svyrydenko, indeed discussed the possibility of delays in payments due to a lack of financial aid in a comment to the Financial Times at the end of December 2023. However, this was in the context of a long-term perspective. Moreover, she mentioned state employees and teachers but did not refer to healthcare workers.

“In the short-term perspective of the first months of the year, the government has an alternative plan on what to do if the funding is delayed. At the same time, in the long-term perspective, there is a risk of delays in payments to social categories, as the priority will be to support security and defense. But, once again, I emphasize that this may not happen until that moment, and this is just one of the dozens of options we are analyzing,” clarified the minister on her Facebook page.

According to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 28, the minimum wage for doctors and pharmacists in state and municipal healthcare institutions is 20,000 UAH. For other medical specialists, it is 13,500 UAH. The basis for payments is the Medical Guarantees Program. Healthcare institutions and the National Health Service of Ukraine enter into contracts for the provision of packages of medical services, and for their implementation, hospitals receive state funds. From these funds, they pay the salaries of medical workers.

In 2024, the Medical Guarantees Program is expanding. The budget for the program for the year is 159 billion UAH, of which 5.2 billion UAH is allocated for the reimbursement of medicinal products. The tariffs that the National Health Service of Ukraine will pay to medical institutions have not been reduced.

The Medical Guarantees Program in 2024 includes 44 service packages. In particular, three new ones:

• “Treatment of infertility using assisted reproductive technologies (in vitro fertilization)”;
• “Treatment of adults and children by organ transplantation”;
• “Treatment of adults and children by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.”

For transplantation services, the National Health Service of Ukraine will pay depending on the transplanted organ. For example, for heart transplantation services, the National Health Service of Ukraine will pay over 2 million UAH, and for lung transplantation, over 2.6 million UAH.

The rate for the treatment of infertility using assisted reproductive technologies (in vitro fertilization) will be 60,324 UAH for one full cycle. One of the highest tariffs in the Medical Guarantees Program will cover medical care for newborns, including surgical operations. In 2024, the tariff has been revised, and the payment amount will depend more on the complexity of the case. Thus, 16 complexity groups have been developed with corresponding coefficients applied to the base rate of 8,735 UAH.

Tariffs for services such as burns and reconstructive surgery have also been increased. In general, tariffs for surgical operations and rehabilitation services will now have more multiplier coefficients depending on the complexity of the service.

“For the second year, our country has been living in conditions of full-scale war. Every day, our healthcare system is forced to overcome new challenges and endure tests of resilience. Despite all the difficulties, we are not reducing the list of medical services funded by the state. Moreover, we are expanding this list. Taking into account the needs of veterans, we are creating opportunities for universal access to medical care for all Ukrainians. The war, along with the increase in trauma and exacerbation of chronic diseases, dictates the need to improve the payment system for medical care in the surgical direction (polytrauma, burns, etc.). Therefore, next year we are increasing the corresponding tariffs, including those for groups such as care and reconstructive surgery, by almost 13 billion UAH,” said the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko.