After the Parliament votes on the changes to the Law on Health Protection, COVID-19 patients undergoing complex and long treatment in private hospitals will be charged MKD 300,000 (EUR 5,000) at most, said Health Minister Venko Filipche on Wednesday.

Minister Filipche told reporters they have faced a problem arising from the Law on State of Crisis that had been dimensioned based on other projections and related to the use of other resources such as machines, not hospitals and staff.

“In this regard, one of the amendments to the Law on Health Protection is this to be done free of charge, not as stipulated in the crisis management law. This is a problem we faced when we talked to private hospitals on using 30 percent of their capacities, but it was difficult to reach an agreement because the law did not refer to hospitals. The price that patients pay in private hospitals is to be limited to the price of packages that the Health Insurance Fund is paying to public health institutions. This price ranges between Mden 40-300,000, depending on the type of treatment,” said Filipche.