The Verkhovna Rada has voted for health reform bill No. 6327 in the wording prepared for second reading, and during the vote on amendments the draft law was not unbalanced or distorted, deputy head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction Serhiy Berezenko has said.

"The [parliament] adopted the wording that was approved by the health committee in the summer of 2017. During the voting on amendments, the opponents of the reform tried to distort the law and unbalance it in every way, but we managed to return all those amendments that were supported by the committee and vote for the bill, which was submitted for second reading. It was not distorted during the consideration of the amendments," he told Interfax-Ukraine.

Berezenko noted that the bills voted in first and second reading were "completely different laws," as there were elements of co-payment for medical services in the first reading of bill No. 6327.

"There are no co-payments today. There is only state funding," he said.

At the same time, Berezenko said that the draft law foresaw expenditures on the health care system at a level of at least 5% of GDP from 2018.

"The law foresees the allocation of at least 5% of GDP starting from 2018. We would very much like the government to be able to allocate such funds," he said.

According to Berezenko, the additionally voted law provides for additional funding, in particular, for the reimbursement program "Affordable Medicines" and for programs for the treatment of certain diseases.

"The reimbursement program remains in place, as well as the program on oncology, AIDS, and treatment abroad. Additional money will be disbursed for these programs. In total, we expect that in the long term it will be 6-6.5%, up to 7% of GDP. These are considerable funds," he said.

Berezenko also noted that the bill laid legal mechanisms for financing medical services, rather than hospital beds. At the same time, the funding of hospital beds is to be completed stopped from 2020.

"There will be a transition period until 2020," he said, noting that the introduction of the transition period was one of the amendments, thanks to which it was possible to get the support of the deputies.

"It's impossible to change the system immediately. We will switch completely to the financing of medical services from 2020. In 2018-2019, we will make a transition period," he said.

As reported, on October 19, the Verkhovna Rada supported at second reading and as a whole the bill on state financial guarantees for the provision of medical services and medicines (No. 6327), which launches medical reform.