Population coverage for health care is not yet universal in all CEE countries.

• Population coverage for health care defined as the share of the population covered for a core set of health care goods and services under public programmes and through private health insurance is universal (or near-universal) in most EU countries . However, in some CEE there is gap in insurance and citizens have to pay for care out-of-pocket .

• At least 10% of Romanian population is not covered for health care costs. In Bulgaria, this share is even higher. Almost 1 million Bulgarian (14.8%) have access to very limited scope of publicly financed health services. These are mainly people who work in another countries, people without a valid identity card, long-term unemployed or people with low incomes that are required to pay contributions but cannot afford to do so and thus are left uncovered.

• As a result, many of them experience a catastrophic health spending (out-of-pocket payments exceed their capacity to pay for health care by at least 40%) and can no longer afford to meet other basic needs such as food, housing or energies. Furthermore, high out-of-pocket payments may also deter some people from seeking adequate care as was the case in COVID-19 pandemic.

• Despite some positive developments undertaken by government of these countries, gaps in health coverage persist and millions of citizens are still unable to access health care they need.

• Learn more: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/507433b0-en.pdf...