Health

Every hospital has the obligation to provide first aid and emergency care to any person presenting to the hospital if the condition of the person’s health is critical.

Qualified first aid and emergency medical assistance shall be granted without discrimination on grounds of, but not limited to, income, sex, age, ethnicity, religion, nationality or political affiliation, regardless of whether or not the patient has a medical condition.

If you have not paid for the mandatory health insurance, you can benefit from a free package of medical services established under the framework contract: medical-surgical emergencies, endemic-epidemic potential diseases and those set out in the National Immunization Program such as monitoring pregnancy and lactation and, family planning services.

According to the law, all foreign citizens with a residence permit in Romania have the obligation to pay the social medical insurance. The payment of the contribution can be done at one of the National Health Insurance House’s (CAS) bureau that is the closest on the territory of you city. National Health Insurance Houses apply different procedures for insurances, a reason why the choice of any of them represents your personal choice.

Primary healthcare

1. Prophylactic services, for example, but not restricted to: immunizations according to the national immunization program, medical-health education and counseling for the prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases, cancer risk factors as well as anti-drug counseling etc.
2. Curative medical services for example: consultation (history, objective examination, diagnosis) in case of illness or accident, mild surgery and injectable treatment as appropriate, prescription of medical and hygienic-dietary treatment
3. Emergency Medical Services
4. Support activities

Issuance of medical documents: sick leave certificate, certificate of death, except for suspected cases requiring specialized medical forensics, medical certificate for the care of the sick child, according to the legal provisions; medical certificates for children required for enrollment in colleges, medical relief for children in case of illness; medical certificates required by the healthcare personnel for the exercise of the profession and the other person employed in the health and social health insurance system. 

Emergency

The Emergency phone number is 112. This is the unique number for alerting emergency services: Police, Ambulance, Firefighters, SMURD, and Gendarmerie.

112 is free and can be called from any phone.

 12 is the immediate help that depends on the accuracy of the information you provide.

 Please promptly answer the following questions:

• what urgency do you have 
• where is the intervention needed 
• where you are at that moment 
• from what phone number you are calling 
• what is your name 

Stay on the phone to answer any other 112 questions and receive the necessary recommendations.

If you do not want to use this service, you can present yourself to any UPU (Emergency Response Unit) where you will be receive the corresponding services for your emergency, in accordance with your rights as a patient. 

Specialist

In the cases where you need a medical service that is more specialized, you can ask your family doctor who, after a check-up, can redirect you to the needed service. Through this procedure, a series of services are paid through your medical insurance; for example medical blood test, ultrasounds, women’s health services, etc, depending on the number of places available and the period when you would like to be examined.

Another way is choosing the private medical system from the start and going to the specialist doctor that corresponds with your symptoms. You have to pay these visits at their full price.

Basic dental services such as consultations are also covered by your medical insurance if they are from the public medical system.

Medicine falls into 2 categories: medicine with prescription and medicine without prescription and both can be purchased from pharmacies. 

Prescription medicine can be procured from pharmacies only with a proof of a doctor’s prescription. They are meant to be used by the person who has previously been diagnosed by a doctor and is under a treatment scheme, depending on the symptoms and the disease they suffer from.   

Medicine without prescription can be bought from pharmacies. They can be used by more people that have common symptoms (i.e. headaches, cold and flu, alergies).. They are taken on the basis of self-diagnose when the person recognizes his symptoms or at a pharmacist’s advice.

In order to benefit from the medical services with the status of an insured person, you need to contact National Health Insurance House (CAS) and register to a family doctor. This is the doctor that you can address to any time you have a medical problem, and he will direct you to the specialist doctor if needed. Doctor visits are payed by your medical insurance. 

In order to be able to get a health insurance, you have to pay a sum that represents 5,5% of the minimum wage per month on a monthly basis. When paying the amount, you must provide proof of payment at the CAS headquarters, where a health insurance contract will be signed and, upon request, you can receive a European Health Card. This document may offer the quality of “medical insurance” to several family members, for example, if the husband has concluded such a CAS contract, and the wife is a housewife and has no income, she is automatically insured based on her husband’s contribution. Also, children (up to 18 years old) and students (up to 26 years of age) are insured by law.

IGI – Health Care