More than a third of respondents to the Health Economy Barometer 2025 survey said they would like healthcare to be a priority in next year’s budget, Renate Grudule, a representative of the analytics and management group PowerHouse Latvia, told LETA.
Healthcare was named the top priority by 35.2 percent of respondents, followed by economic development (20.6 percent) and security and defense (20.1 percent).
The survey also shows that people are critical of how healthcare funding is used – only 7.9 percent believe it is spent efficiently. People of pre-retirement and retirement age are particularly skeptical, as their longer experience with the healthcare system has led to greater distrust, the study found.
The data further reveals that 41 percent of people in Latvia had to forgo a doctor’s visit or treatment in the past year for financial reasons. This problem is especially acute among the lowest-income groups. For example, in households with an income of up to EUR 450 per person, only 5.4 percent consider healthcare to be very affordable, while 16.7 percent consider it unaffordable.
By contrast, in the highest income group – above EUR 1,301 per person – positive assessments of affordability are almost six times more common (35 percent compared to 5.4 percent).
Respondents also highlighted the biggest problems in healthcare: long waiting times to see doctors and specialists (77.2 percent), insufficient access to state-funded services (61.5 percent), and the availability and prices of medicines (36.8 percent).
The full survey results will be available on the PowerHouse Latvia website from September 23.
As reported, the analytics and management group PowerHouse Latvia, together with Latvian and international partners, will present the results of the Health Economy Barometer 2025 on September 23.
The aim of the study is to draw the attention of the public and policymakers to the challenges of financing Latvia’s healthcare sector, as well as to identify possible directions for strategic investment.
Source: BNS
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