In the last three years, 9 out of 10 Romanians have postponed important decisions for their health and well-being due to a lack of money, which forces many to postpone check-ups or medical investigations for “sometime”.
Due to the lack of money, Romanians rarely go to the doctor. Archive photo
Financial pressure and social instability lead most Romanians to put their physical and emotional health on the back burner. About 88% say that in the last three years they have postponed at least one important decision for their health, most often for financial reasons or because expenses considered more urgent appeared, according to a survey carried out at the initiative of tbi bank, on a sample of 1,072 respondents from all over the country. Most postponing decisions concerned medical checks or investigations (53%) and dental treatments (52.1%), and the most frequently cited reasons are “more urgent expenses” (43%) and the impossibility of bearing the entire cost in one payment (41.3%). Out of the total number of respondents, over 30% thought, when they made the decision to postpone the visit to the doctor, that “I will deal with this someday”.
“The survey data show very clearly a pattern of postponement that has become almost a normality: for many Romanians, care for physical and emotional health is constantly pushed to “sometime”. Not because it doesn't matter, but because the lack of money, the pressure of other expenses and the absence of flexible payment solutions turn important decisions into an indefinite plan. The problem is that this “someday” often comes with higher costs, aggravated problems and a negative impact on well-being. In this context, our team comes up with a series of smart and advantageous financing solutions, precisely to help Romanians take better care of themselves”, says Ionuț Sabadac, VP Merchant Solutions, tbi.
Other types of postponed decisions were activities that would contribute to personal development (20.2%) and care / well-being / aesthetic procedures (16.6%). At the same time, the data shows that more than 42% of respondents postpone for more than a year making a decision relevant to their health, while less than 10% declare that they do not postpone such decisions at all. Retrospective analysis shows that for 38% of those who procrastinated, the main consequence was worsening the original problem, and 13% reported occasional discomfort. Only 11.3% of respondents say that the postponement had no impact.
The tbi bank survey analyzed how Romanians take care of their health and was conducted in January-February 2025, at the national level, through the iVox platform, on a total sample of 1,072 Internet users in Romania. More than 54% of the participants are male, and almost 25% of the respondents earn more than 6,000 lei net monthly.
New rules for paying family doctors from January 1
From January 1, 2026, the distribution of funds for primary health care has been significantly changed. Only 25% of the budget is allocated to the payment per capita, and 75% goes to the payment per medical service actually provided, compared to 35% per capita and 65% per service in 2025, according to an ordinance adopted in the last meeting of the Government last year.
“The new distribution of 25% – 75% of the budget approved in 2026 for primary medical assistance is transposed by decreasing the value of the point per capita and increasing the value of the point per medical service, which represents the efficient use of funds to pay for necessary and actually provided medical services to the insured”, it is stated in the substantiating note of the ordinance.
The change thus also affects the settlement point values. The payment per capita decreases from 12 lei to 8.2 lei, while the payment per medical service increases from 8 lei to 10.3 lei. These values are applicable from January 1, 2026.
The new rules are established by a joint order of the Minister of Health and the President of CNAS (no. 2.339/2.015/2025), published in the Official Gazette on December 31, 2025. The order provides the legal framework for the application of point values and the new budget distribution.
According to the emergency ordinance approved by the Government, in 2027, 20% of the budget for primary health care will be allocated to the payment per capita, and 80% will go to the payment per medical service. The authorities emphasize that the purpose of the change is to correlate the funds with the medical services actually provided.
