A Problem Seeking Immediate Solution

It has been a number of days not since the print and broadcast media runs stories about concerns created among pensioners, invalids, and veterans regarding failure to collect reimbursable medicaments based on medical prescriptions. The Albanian Helsinki Committee has followed the problem closely. It also heard complaints by a number of citizens. The AHC is also aware of pharmacists' claims that the Health Care Insurance Institute (ISKSH) has failed to transfer to them considerable amounts of money, which is the value of reimbursed prescriptions.

The fact that the Health Care Institute appears to have a deficit (financial debt), estimated at millions of dollars, can in no way justify the endless dawdling or the impossibility to obtain necessary reimbursable medicaments among citizens that enjoy this right legally.

The AHC is of the opinion that different kinds of abuse that may have been committed by officials, medical doctors, pharmacists, or certain patients can in no way justify delays in resolving this problem, while it is known that these delays have a direct impact on the health of a large needy part of the society.

This is why the AHC calls upon the government, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, and the Health Care Institute, to undertake measures to hold legally accountable persons responsible for this situation, and to authorize the rigorous implementation of laws guaranteeing the reimbursement of medicaments for a specific category of the society. Otherwise, any delay or negligence would violate the citizens' legitimate interests and, as a result, their health.