It's good news for 19-year-old Gabriels Mutors, who is battling a malignant tumor and asked the public for help with extremely expensive drugs.
According to "Ziedot.lv", "Latvenergo" has pledged to step in with a donation to pay for the medicines needed by oncology patients. This will most likely mean that Gabriels will be able to receive the doses of medication he needs this year, for which the public has already donated more than EUR 260,000 on the "Ziedot.lv" platform.
In total, Gabriels needs almost half a million euros for his treatment.
The problem of reimbursable medicines in Latvia is acute: there is increasing talk of cases where the state often refuses to reimburse oncology patients. There are also cases of patients with the same diagnosis but different cancer locations being reimbursed by the state, while others are not.
The Health Minister has stated that the situation was due to a lack of finances. Meanwhile, patients' only hope is the support of donors, and in some cases the sums needed are enormous. The Ministry of Health will ask for additional funding for reimbursable medicines when preparing next year's draft budget. The National Health Service noted that the national budget for reimbursable medicines needs an additional €150 million for all patients.
