When Gjergj Fishta went to Paris to defend Albania from his enemies’ thesis that Albanians are a barbaric people, one of the strongest arguments he used to convince the Great Powers was that of social cohesion.
“Why can’t there be a free Albania where, at least, women are not killed and where there is not a single grave of a person dying of hunger,” Pope Francis told world leaders at the Peace Conference. That was more than a century ago.
Today, the vision of the National Renaissance that Fishta and the rest of the nation’s enlightened men had has been replaced with another Renaissance, while the social cohesion of stateless Albanians has given way to the greed of those who love the state in order to plunder it. And today’s Albania is much more barbaric than the Albania of a century ago.
Cross-referencing the official figures reported by international organizations on the one hand and the Albanian government on the other regarding the financial support of healthcare in Albania reveals a shocking reality. Albanian patients are being financially massacred, while the state budget does not reimburse even 40 percent of the illness bill.
Meanwhile, those suffering from serious illnesses face an even more tragic fate. Albania had no graves of those who died of hunger a century ago, but it cannot say today that there are no graves of people who die from the financial inability to seek treatment.
Life costs a little.
Globocan, the online database of global tumor statistics, estimates that in Albania the 5-year prevalence of lung tumor patients is around 2,000 patients.
According to official data from the Ministry of Health, the Albanian government currently reimburses medications for only 430 patients suffering from lung cancer, or for only one in five patients.
Here the calculations are dramatic. According to the official treatment protocol used in Albania, the annual cost of medications for lung cancer is around 3,300 euros per patient. For a country where the average per capita income is less than 10,000 euros, this cost is devastating for many families.
With this reimbursement coverage, the state has given these patients two choices. Either go bankrupt financially, or die. And unfortunately, most may only have the second choice available to them. Or at least, that’s what the numbers indicate.
In Albania, over 1,200 people die from lung cancer each year. This figure is 3 times higher than the number of patients currently reimbursed by the Albanian state for this disease. In short, this is a healthcare system that sentences you to death, without trial.
The situation is almost the same for the entire spectrum of the 5 tumors with the highest prevalence in the country. The reimbursement rate for medications varies from 20 percent of patients to 80 percent in the best case, which are breast cancer patients.
Thousands of patients facing the tragedy of a fatal illness are left out of the support scheme. And all this for an annual cost of no more than 8 million euros.
Family destruction
The World Diabetes Federation reports that Albania currently has around 261.5 thousand adults aged 20-79 living with diabetes. Based on this data, the World Bank estimates that the prevalence of diabetes among adults in Albania is 10.6%.
Among the category of diseases with high prevalence, diabetes is one of the most costly. Currently, the cost of drugs for the treatment of a diabetic patient in Albania, according to official protocols, is estimated at an average of over 160 euros per year. For many families, especially those with low incomes, this is a considerable bill, so their hope remains the state budget and the public reimbursement scheme.
But what is the reality of reimbursements in Albania?
According to official data from the Ministry of Health, the Albanian government currently reimburses medications for around 101,500 diabetic patients, or less than 40 percent of the total.
So, out of 261.5 thousand patients, only 101.5 thousand are reimbursed, while 160 thousand Albanians suffering from diabetes are forced to pay the costs of their medications out of their own pockets.
And yet, diabetes is just one of the highly prevalent diseases that erode the budgets of Albanian families. Hypertension is another disease with a significant bill.
The World Heart Observatory estimates that there are currently about 760,000 adults in Albania who suffer from high blood pressure. But the Albanian government reimburses medications for only 244,000 patients, or about 32 percent of the total.
Over half a million hypertensive patients, precisely 516 thousand people, are forced to pay for treatment costs from their own budgets because for the state they do not exist, or at least they do not exist as sick people.
The financial calculations are harsh. Diabetes and hypertension medications alone take Albanian families about 50 million euros a year from their budgets, an amount that would normally have to be covered by the public health fund.
The priority that is not
Last year, the Albanian government spent an average of 330 euros per capita on public health through the public health budget. This figure is 5 times lower than similar countries in the region and 10 times less than the European Union average.
In terms of GDP, Albania currently spends 2.9 percent of its GDP on the health sector. Here too, the figures for similar countries and those of the European Union are in the same ratio. Albania spends 2 to 5 times less from the public budget to support health.
Public spending on health
Albania has long underfunded healthcare. But as the population ages and the prevalence of diseases continues to rise, this situation has become unsustainable.
Public finances are now in a better position to support both health and education more. But the government is doing the opposite. According to the medium-term budget program, public funds for health are expected to decrease in relation to Gross Domestic Product.
And here the question arises seriously. Is healthcare really a priority for the government?/ Kapitali.al