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Healthy future: the State Duma wanted to allow spending maternity capital on the treatment of children
In Russia, the possibilities of using maternity capital can be expanded.The State Duma wanted to allow him to be sent for the treatment of children, and a corresponding inter-factional bill has been submitted to the lower house of parliament. If the initiative is adopted, parents will be able to spend money on paid medical services provided to children. We are talking about emergency medical care. This approach is expected to have a positive impact on children's health. However, when it is implemented, bureaucratic difficulties and machinations on the part of citizens and medical institutions are possible, experts warn. Whether it is necessary to allow paying for the treatment of children with maternity capital is in the Izvestia article.
Available help
The parliamentarians proposed to allow the funds of the maternity capital to be spent on the treatment of children. The inter-factional draft law is already submitted to the State Duma. According to it, it will be allowed to receive paid medical services provided for emergency care at the expense of the maternity capital.
At the federal level, such an opportunity is currently unavailable — only in certain regions of Russia. Among them are St. Petersburg, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, Sverdlovsk Region and others.
At the state level, a program of guarantees for the free provision of medical care to citizens is approved annually. It includes, among other things, the treatment of children. But practice, according to the authors of the initiative, shows that emergency medical care is faster and more realistic to receive in a paid medical institution.
"At the same time, paid medical services provided in the provision of emergency medical care are usually of higher quality. Receiving such paid medical services can be extremely burdensome for the family budget," the explanatory note to the bill clarifies.
Parliamentarians expect that the use of maternity capital's funds to pay for treatment will be in demand in emergency situations and effective in the system of state support for families. The implementation of the measure will have a positive impact on the health of children and the demographic development of the country.
Maternity capital itself is a demographic measure designed to stimulate the birth rate in Russia. Currently, its funds can be spent on improving housing conditions, educating a child, forming a funded part of a labor pension for women, and purchasing goods and services for social adaptation and integration into society of children with disabilities. You can also receive money in the form of a monthly payment until the child reaches the age of three.
Treatment for all
The draft law on the allocation of maternity capital funds to pay for emergency medical care for children is controversial, as it simultaneously affects social support for families, health issues and budget spending mechanisms, said the CEO of the professional legal group "AID" lawyer David Adams. The inclusion of the possibility of using maternity capital to pay for medical services implies a change in the concept of this measure of state support.
Urgent conditions in children are those that may threaten the child's life, explains pediatrician Anna Vlasova. These include fever, convulsive syndrome, bronchoobstructive syndrome (and asthma attack or exacerbation), laryngotracheitis stenosis, urticaria, Quincke's edema and anaphylaxis, injuries, burns, foreign bodies of the respiratory tract, nosebleeds, fainting and attacks of paroxysmal tachycardia.The organization of free care for such conditions is regulated by federal law within the framework of the state guarantees program.
In conditions of a shortage of funding for the healthcare system, with the help of the new norm, parents will receive an additional tool to quickly solve problems related to their child's health, Adams believes. However, this actually means recognizing the inadequacy of the compulsory health insurance system for timely and high-quality treatment of children and shifting responsibility for providing medical care to families.
By proposing to extend the mother capital to pay for emergency medical care, the legislator proceeds from the fact that paid medical services, as a rule, are of higher quality, lawyer Alexander Khaminsky, head of the Center for Law Enforcement in Moscow and the Moscow Region, draws attention. In practice, private clinics do not always provide services comparable in quality to guaranteed government medical programs, warns Adams.
Nevertheless, permission to use maternity capital for the treatment of children is an important measure to support families facing serious illnesses in a child, believes a member of the commission of the General Council of the United Russia Party for the protection of motherhood, childhood and family support, a member of the public council under the Commissioner for Human Rights of the city of Moscow Suny Koval.
— Financial support will help parents get the necessary medical services faster, which is especially important in emergency situations. Such a decision will increase the availability of high—quality treatment and improve the overall health of children, she is sure.
Situations where parents have to collect donations for an expensive operation for a child are unacceptable, says Yuri Lyandau, Doctor of Economics, Professor at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Effective government policy and appropriate priorities are needed to solve the problem.
It makes sense to think about providing the opportunity to spend maternity capital on planned medical care, Khaminsky urges. According to him, now children in need of routine treatment often wait a long time to receive quotas. The possibility of applying to private clinics in such cases would increase the social security of families.
Deceptive maneuver
However, at the moment, the practical implementation of the initiative raises questions, David Adams notes. And one of the key things is the efficiency of spending funds.
— The existing mechanism for using maternity capital provides for a rather complicated procedure for approving applications, which can be a critical factor in the case of emergency medical care.If the funds are allocated with a delay, their intended use becomes meaningless," the lawyer explains.
In situations where assistance is urgently needed, efficiency will depend on the speed of government agencies and banks, says Saniy Koval.
— To avoid delays, it is necessary to simplify the process of approving and transferring funds, possibly through the creation of special accelerated procedures for emergency situations, — admits the interlocutor of Izvestia.
The efficiency of paying for the necessary services will depend on how well the state organizes this process, Yuri Lyandau agrees.
Of course, there is a certain risk of fraud when using maternity capital for the treatment of a child, Koval draws attention. For example, unscrupulous medical institutions may overstate the cost of services or offer fictitious diagnoses in order to receive payments.
To prevent fraud, it is necessary to clearly define the list of medical organizations that will be able to provide services at the expense of maternity capital, as well as establish strict criteria for confirming the need for emergency care, Adams is convinced.
— Without such mechanisms, there is a high probability that the system can be used in order to extract illegal benefits, and not to provide real medical support for children," he warns.
Digital technologies can come to the rescue in the fight against fraud, Lyandau believes. They will not only speed up the possibility of payment, but also ensure guaranteed targeted use of funds.
In particular, in order to avoid fraud with the parent capital in the provision of medical services, it is necessary that all appointments, as well as medical interventions, be carried out through the EMIAS system, recommends Alexander Khaminsky. This will increase the transparency of expenses, allowing you to check their validity at any time.
Ambiguous role
Theoretically, the initiative of parliamentarians can have a positive impact on the demographic situation in the country, Saniy Koval does not exclude. Improving the availability of medical services for children helps to reduce infant and child mortality, which is an important factor in increasing fertility.
However, in the long term, with the implementation of the initiative, the role of maternity capital as a mechanism of demographic policy may decrease, admits David Adams. The expected effect on fertility and support for family well-being is not obvious, since funds will be spent on short-term needs, rather than on strategically significant improvements in family living conditions, such as the purchase of real estate.
— This raises the question of the expediency of redistributing state resources and the need to find other mechanisms for financing emergency medical care for children that will not affect long—term social programs," the lawyer explains.
In other words, the deputies' initiative, despite its obvious social significance, requires a thoughtful approach, a detailed analysis of possible risks and the development of effective control and administration mechanisms, the Izvestia interlocutor is convinced.
— Without this, the initiative may lead not so much to an improvement in the situation with medical care for children, as to a decrease in the effectiveness of the maternity capital program itself and the emergence of new bureaucratic and financial problems for families and the state, — summarizes Adams.
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