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There is no rational reason to justify raising the price of PCR tests by 50 percent, except that the state treasury has been emptied and a way needs to be found to supplement it, believes geneticist Oliver Stojković.
Photo: EPA-EFE / OLIVIER HOSLETAs he explains, the actual price of PCR tests is less than 3,000 dinars, including all costs, including employee salaries.
The reason for the price increase is a question to which we did not receive an answer yesterday from the Health Insurance Fund of the Republic, to which citizens pay money when they want to take the test on their own.
Furthermore, we did not receive an answer to the question why the price of the PCR test for Serbian citizens is 9,000 dinars and for foreigners without residence in Serbia 18,000, and what is the reason for this difference.
Oliver Stojković explains that according to the existing RHIF price list, the price of tests carried out by the PCR method in state institutions is less than 3,000, and that this can be taken as a realistic price to test the coronavirus by the method PCR, since it is the same procedure. for which the same conditions are required.
– The price paid by the RHIF for the PCR detection of similar viruses is 2,640 dinars. This is the amount that RHIF pays, for example, to the Institute of Microbiology of the Faculty of Medicine, which performs such tests, and this price includes materials and equipment provided by the Institute and employee salaries and other costs. Taking that into account, the price of the PCR test for the corona virus of 6,000 was unrealistic, and the fact that it is now 9,000, which is three times higher than the real cost, is sheer insolence, he says to Stojković .
The Serbian government announced on Tuesday that the price of the PCR test for Serbian citizens from January 1 will be 9,000 dinars, and for foreigners who do not have residence in Serbia, 18,000 dinars, which is the amount that entered effective December 15.
Previously, the tests carried out by citizens amounted to 6,000 dinars and this money was paid to the RHIF.
Oliver Stojković, however, points out that from the outset, it doesn’t make sense for RHIF, as a non-profit organization, to charge citizens for PCR tests.
– The RHIF bought those PCR tests with money from citizens and financed all the costs that accompany them, and now it charges those same citizens for PCR tests. What would make sense, given that private laboratories do not do PCR tests, is for government agencies to do this type of test and charge it to those citizens who do not have symptoms of the virus and who need the test, for example for travel reasons . I’m primarily thinking of hospitals that can do this kind of testing, but will procure and pay for everything needed for PCR testing, and will not take material from the RHIF that has already been paid for with citizens’ money, says Stojković.
When asked what could be the reason for such a price increase, the Danas interlocutor says: that the state treasury has been emptied.
– Now all possible ways are being found to provide money that no longer exists. It seems that the only way to find money is to put your hands in the pockets of citizens, concludes Stojković.
According to official information, 2.06 million citizens in Serbia have been tested as of yesterday, and this figure includes serological, antigenic and PCR tests.
At the same time, nowhere is there official data on how many PCR tests are carried out at the personal request of citizens.
Yesterday, the RHIF did not answer this question from Danas, as well as why the price of PCR tests for foreigners is twice as high as for citizens of Serbia.
In addition to PCR tests, antigen tests are twice as expensive for foreigners, so Serbian citizens pay the RHIF 3,500 dinars for this service and 7,000 to foreigners.
The price of serological tests is also influenced by citizenship, so the serological tests for Serbian citizens are 1200 and for foreigners without residence in Serbia the price is 2939 dinars.
Oliver Stojković points out that among the 20,000 tests that are done every day according to official data, PCR tests have only 30 percent, while the rest are antigenic.
– Since September, our laboratories where PCR tests are processed no longer work with the capacity with which they worked during the summer. First, it’s not done in three shifts anymore, but two, and secondly, all the medical workers who were sent to these labs for help have been returned to their home institutions, says Stojković, adding that if you look The structure of the tests published by the Kragujevac Institute for Public Health, one of the few institutions that provides this information to the public, shows that of the total of those evaluated daily, a third were tested by the PCR method and the rest were antigenic .
Sabic: The government owes an explanation
A significant increase in the price of tests for the presence of coronavirus is a controversial procedure that forces the Government to provide the public with the missing explanations for such a step, lawyer Rodoljub Sabic told the Beta agency yesterday. Likewise, he pointed out that the tragic situation caused by the pandemic is not, nor should it be, an opportunity that no one takes advantage of for their economic and lucrative interests, for which the government is obliged to “clear up any suspicion that a literally tragic situation is exploiting. “. to fill the budget. “” From a purely legal aspect, the public’s right to receive answers to such or similar questions is completely indisputable, “Sabic added.
Free in France, 120 euros in Austria
When comparing prices for PCR tests in Europe, the BBC’s Serbian portal announced yesterday that prices vary widely from country to country and, in some places, from region to region. Thus, the PCR test for emergencies in, for example, Dubrovnik-Neretva county at the Institute of Public Health is about 200 euros, while in the Osijek Clinical Hospital in Osijek-Baranja county about 66 euros. “In Montenegro, the PCR test costs 80 euros, in Slovenia from 80 to 120 euros, and in North Macedonia the price ranges between 40 and 89 euros. In Western European countries, prices also vary. Thus, in France the test is free, in Germany at the Frankfurt airport the price on request is 56 euros and in Austria 120 euros. The country that has decided to lower the price of PCR tests is Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it has cost 57.3 euros since the beginning of December, instead of the previous 70 euros.
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