National Press Review, January 20

The main topics covered in today's newspapers are the queues at the Health Insurance Houses and the recalculation of military pensions.

"How did the Government spend 36 million euros on healthcare?"

The România Liberă writes that the Government has purchased an information program for the healthcare system, which, in general, can only keep record of patients and prevent the double reimbursement of prescription.

The rest of the problems the healthcare system is dealing with will remain unsolved. According to the same newspaper, physicians, healthcare economists and computer specialists argue that computerization does not ensure a strict control over expenditures.

The Jurnalul Naţional: "Humiliation queue for the sake of health".

The Health Insurance House has turned into an institution designed to humiliate people requesting healthcare services on their expense, from dawn to dusk.

After the information system broke down last week, people now line up in front of these institutions every day, which proves that Romanian bureaucracy is a a consumer of time and energy.

"Military pensions covered in today"s newspapers.

They go up, not down" - the Evenimentul Zilei writes.

The official data the ministry made public yesterday show no considerable reductions but increase in the military pensions.

The Gândul points out that, following recalculation, the Government might be forced to spend more money on military pensions, taking into account that the cuts in big pension do not cover the increase in small pensions.

And still, - according to the Adevărul - "One military pension out of three is reduced after recalculation".

The most impressive reductions, between 5,000 and 10,000 RON, will be applied to the pensions of several magistrates and military pilots.

Otherwise, today's newspapers write about money.

"Black Sea cities levy the highest local taxes" - the Adevărul writes.

Tax payers in Constanţa and Tulcea, followed by the ones in Bucharest, Cluj and Iaşi pay the highest taxes for apartments and lands.

"Romanian banks likely to unfreeze lending" - the Evenimentul Zilei writes.

But the specialists consulted by the daily claim that "the demand" hit rock bottom and the chances for it to go up are very slim.

We end today's article with Gândul and the same topic - money.

"Heating bills for December delivered" – the newspaper writes, analysing the picture for the entire country.

In Timişoara, the heating cost has increased by almost 60 per cent, in Iaşi the bill amounts to half of the national minimum wage, and in Oradea people pay 100 RON more.

As for Bucharest, "cold has got expensive" – the Gândul writes.

People face cold, but have to pay larger heating bills.

Translated by: Raluca Mizdrea
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University