20 billion euro loan... and promise of increasing neonatal mortality.

In addition to the austerity cuts promised by the government...taxes are expected to increase. This will increase the financial stress for parents and healthcare providers. Critics are speculating that due to these austerity cuts and the poor state-run health system that healthcare providers will now attempt to leave the country more than ever.

Excerpted from "The Common Man News"
http://themancommon.blogspot.com/2010/05/imf-dictates-shock-program-to-romania.html

"Coming out of talks with an International Monetary Front delegation last week, Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc unveiled an austerity package that is the precondition for the country receiving the next outlay of a 20 billion euro loan package. Even though cuts were expected, the ferocity of the planned attack sent ripples of shock and anger through the population. [...]
Romania has been a target of the IMF. Previous IMF dictates were observed by the notorious “anti-communist” CDR coalition government of 1998-2000, a government that is best remembered for the shameful role it played in the attack on Serbia by NATO forces in 1999, its destruction of the mining sector and huge privatization programs. But the scale of the new attacks is unprecedented even by these infamous standards. Among the population there is increasingly the feeling that the political establishment has this time bitten off more than it can chew. [...]
The dramatic drop in living standards is accompanied by the decay of the public healthcare system. The 25 percent cut to child benefits will certainly affect the infant mortality rate, which is already the highest in Europe. Many of these infant mortalities happen in the first year of life and are caused by treatable infections and malnutrition. {...]
Hospitals have been left in a state of decomposition for years, with patients and health workers buying medication and medical materials themselves due to the almost total lack of funding. The situation reached a critical point in April and May of this year, when more and more managers, including in the capital Bucharest, reported that their hospitals can no longer perform surgeries or receive emergency cases."