World Bank: “Health care spending impoverished 4.5% of Albanians”

This is the highest number in Europe, according to the World Bank, and the reason why health care impoverishes so many people in Albania, is because the government covers only half of the cost, charging families for the rest.

The World Bank says that Albanians suffer from this phenomenon even more than other countries in Balkan, with similar economies. In Kosovo, this part of the people takes only 2.4% of the population, in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia, it’s less than 1.5%.

Albania spends 650 million EUR a year for the health care. The Socialist Party promised in the electoral campaign of 2013 to offer free health care, promising that this cost would be covered by the state budget through general taxation.

But, according to the World Bank, in 2014, when the most recent data are taken, the government has only covered half of the bill. The other half, 325 million EUR, was paid by citizens.

In Montenegro citizens pay only 42.8% of the bill, in other countries of the region it goes even lower, from 37% to 28%.

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