PRIVATE hospitals charge Cypriots 2.5 times more than the European Union average with Cypriots incurring significantly higher costs even on simple blood tests, Health Minister Stavros Malas said yesterday when he delivered the ministry’s report for 2011.
A cholesterol blood test for example costs €15 in Cyprus versus about €1.9 in Italy and about €2.4 in Sweden while taking a triglycerides’ count would set a Cypriot resident back by €10 while it cost about €1.3 in both Italy and Sweden, Malas said commenting on 2009 figures.
A liver biopsy costs €684 versus €157 in Switzerland according to 2008 figures, Malas said.
A diagnostic procedure, ERCP, used by doctors to see the inside of a patient’s stomach costs over €1,100 in Cyprus in 2008 but only €378 in Switzerland, Malas said.
Cataract surgery cost over €1,800 in Cyprus while in Germany the same operation would set a patient back by less than €700, according to data from last year.
Having a natural birth is also expensive at a little less than €2,400 versus less than €1,800 in Germany, Malas said.
Malas said he had observed the same price variations across most sectors adding that “patients do not have negotiating power to get better prices”.
“All Cypriots, irrespective of whether or not they are entitled to free health care, pay a large amount of their family budget for (private) health services,” Malas said.
He said that only 40 per cent of Cypriots opt to use state services despite the fact that 85 per cent are entitled.
About 58 per cent choose to go private “digging deep into their pockets,” Malas said.
This affects the socially vulnerable such as pensioners especially who “pay relatively higher amounts”, Malas said.
Malas said that the private sector had grown disproportionately to the state sector “without being checked” and without coordination with the public sector.
This lack of co-ordination has created an inefficient use of resources, Malas said.
Malas admitted there were a number of problems plaguing the state’s healthcare.
Those problems include long waiting lists, limited working hours and the “very expensive” alternative choice of the private health sector, Malas said.
Malas has proposed that the implementation of a national health scheme should focus on secondary and tertiary (specialised) health care and making “good use of the private sector’s infrastructure to handle in-hospital healthcare and to alleviate pressure from public hospitals”.
