Ethical Issues in Financing Health Care in Romania

The allocation of financial resources in accordance with population health care needs represents a complex task, with practical and ethical dilemmas. The decisions regarding resource allocation are made at macro, mezzo and micro levels. Legislative authorities and government decide how to allocate limited resources based on cost effectiveness criteria. Managing directors of hospitals and research institutes take mezzo decisions, while doctors and researchers in healthcare area are responsible to make micro decisions. The aim of this paper is to assess the use of equity criteria for resource allocation in Romanian public hospitals. We found that resource allocation within the Romanian health system increases the inequalities among individuals and groups.