The socio-economic dimension of health in Romania

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the interaction between human health and the socio-economic conditions in which it occurs.

Form the individual health point of view, the health is an element component of the individual needs system. But, from the national perspective, the health is a broader concept that implies economic, social, and psychological influences.

The study will employ the method of statistical data analysis. The source of these data will consist from the official national and international reports issued by the institutions involved in these tasks.

Having as start point the reality of the increasing needs and limited resources for the health care aims, results the necessity of diminishing the impact of risk factors, besides the well-balanced resources management.

The social dimension of health analysis has to take into account that health care market does not operate by the rules of a free market; it is a typical case of "market failure". The analysis of risk factors with social implications (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, poverty) is about to be done in conjunction with health services market, with income and, not least with government health policy.

In Romania, the financing gap in health care, lead to an increased incidence of certain diseases. These diseases determine direct implications in the economy (labor productivity, the use of working time, etc.), and also in the level of welfare.

The process of searching of the most appropriate way in organizing the Romanian health care system consisted of privatization of primary health sector (family doctors, pharmaceuticals), and in decentralization and aggregation in the secondary health care (hospitals). This reform did not resolve the inconsistency between funding opportunities and health needs.

Based on these developments, we consider that state policies should be adapted to the realities, based on a coherent system of indicators to highlight the relationship between the health status of population and economic growth.