Senators, after POT MP proposes cancer patients pay part of treatment costs: 'It's like something out of a movie'

Senator Nicoleta Pauliuc (PNL) said on Thursday, after a senator from the Young People's Party (POT) proposed, in a legislative initiative, that cancer patients pay 5% of the cost of treatment, that “it's like a movie”, but “it's reality and it's unacceptable”, notes News.ro.

“It's like it's from a movie. But it's reality. And it's unacceptable. A senator from the Young People's Party (POT) proposes that cancer patients pay 5% of the cost of treatment. No, it's not a joke. It's not a sci-fi scenario. It's a bill submitted to the Romanian Parliament,” Pauliuc wrote in a post on Facebook.

“We cannot ask for extra money for the oncological treatment of people who already pay, day by day, a huge price – physically, emotionally and psychologically,” the senator emphasizes.

Pauliuc also says that she strongly believes that any law aimed at health, in particular the prevention and combating of cancer, must be drafted only in consultation with specialists from the medical system, patient associations, civil society, “otherwise, we risk turning the Parliament into a laboratory of social experiments with no connection to the real needs of the citizens”, adds Nicoleta Pauliuc.

“I believe in a state that puts compassion above budget calculations and that treats the needs of the most vulnerable with responsibility and empathy. Free and unconditional access to treatment must remain a basic pillar in the fight against cancer”, the senator also mentions.

What does the senator who initiated the bill say

“I am coming with a first (written) clarification regarding my Legislative Project (…) that I submitted to the Senate before Christmas. I am making this “clarification”, motivated by the fact that I saw that it aroused not only interest from some citizens, but also a concern, which was fueled in the public space and especially on social networks by a lot of misinformation, informational manipulations that circulated in the past weeks (even from Holy Holidays) and which is still circulating and which is based on NON-truths and distortions and serious denials about the real intentions that we had and have with this bill”, says Senator Gheorghe Vela.

Vela shows that, through this legislative project, he had in mind the protection of non-insured people who were “stripped” of insurance by the Bolojan Government.

“What I propose through this PL is still a “free”, but “partial” and above all “disguised”… for needy people suffering from cancer, because the 5% can be paid in installments or even not at all, if these people prove that they have no income. There are uninsured people with income and uninsured people without income. I want to help these people, who are the most troubled of all, who are also uninsured, but also without income, as a priority. Because I am trying to practically bring these people to the condition of benefiting from oncological treatments as if they were also “insured”.

Then some of the Romanians, even if they have the right to free treatments or interventions for certain conditions such as cancer, still have to wait a long time depending on the schedule made by the hospitals, which work in collaboration with the Insurance Companies. There are people who had to wait over 3 months to get an MRI. Some people are just “OBSESSED FOR FREE” but I am “obsessed with the URGENTNESS” of treating people with cancer. There are many people with cancer who can quietly die of cancer waiting for a “free” medical intervention from the state, when they could benefit from it if they paid only a SMALL part of its cost and even this “payment” or “CO-PAYMENT” should be made staggered in several installments or even not at all because in the Law proposed by me there is also the possibility of total exemption and exemption from this CO-PAYMENT, not only for MINORS with cancer as I proposed, but also for people who are in a serious stage of cancer and especially for people who prove that they have no income…”, says the senator.