The insurance card in the Romanian health insurance system is still a kind of Morgana girl, we are promised its issuance, but the whole procedure sometimes takes so long that the patient dies. The process is so cumbersome that Order no. 335/2024 of the National Health Insurance House, applicable from March 26, which establishes that the certificate issued instead of the card is valid until the date the card is issued, not just 60 days, as it was before.
In other words, CNAS admits its inability to properly manage the situation, which has generated dissatisfaction on the part of patients and medical service providers throughout the country, including in Galati. Practically, the system collected the value of the production and distribution of the card, established on May 1, 2023, according to the agreement between CNAS and CN Imprimeria Naţională SA, at 13.69 lei (including VAT), but the card did not reach the beneficiaries. Moreover, resources were spent on issuing the certificates, every 60 days, until the decision was made to extend their validity, and they are still issued to those who need them.
People wonder, and rightly so, how supermarkets and pharmacies can quickly issue all kinds of loyalty cards, to give just one example, not to mention the problem of banks, which would be able to issue you the card on the spot, only to attracts as a client, and in the health system it is not possible? Why not resort to an application on the phone, at least for those who can manage it?
Many believe that it is a ploy to postpone the provision of medical services, some of which are absolutely indispensable to life. The patient does not have a card, whether it was lost, stolen or expired or the insured person changed the category from employee to pensioner, for example. Until he succeeds in obtaining the certificate and returning with it to the family doctor, in order to subsequently reach the necessary specialist consultation or purchase the medicines he needs, it is possible that sometimes even a week passes, because he has to take into account and the schedule of the issuing institution, and that of the doctor, as well as how long it takes to stand in line. Any chronic patient knows what such a waiting time means when you need medicine, and if we talk about other types of emergencies, the equation gets even more complicated.
A strictly dedicated application would not only solve the problem, but would also allow upgrading for European or international insurance, and even loading a private insurance. You just need the will. Politics, obviously.
