Ukraine’s funding for Military Medical Commissions in civilian clinics falls short of needs – study

Expenditures allocated for the operation of Ukraine’s Military Medical Commissions (MMC) within civilian healthcare institutions have proven insufficient to meet actual needs, according to new research findings.

In some years, the cost of evaluating a single individual through the MMC process was less than 70 hryvnias, prompting serious concerns about the quality and thoroughness of the medical assessments being conducted.

The findings were presented by Iryna Yakovets, co-author of the study “Blind Spots of the MMC: How the Examination System Works in Ukraine,” during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine.

“We calculated the total number of individuals who underwent Military Medical Commission evaluations in Ukraine: 1,300,219 in 2022; 1,203,807 in 2023; 1,612,255 in 2024; and 152,210 in January 2025 alone,” Yakovets stated.

She pointed out that, according to data from the National Health Service of Ukraine, civilian medical facilities received over 1.5 billion hryvnias in funding for conducting these medical examinations over the same period. However, the actual expenditure per person remained critically low.

“If you look at the allocated funds, the cost per examination is extremely modest,” she said. “We divided the total MMC budget by the number of individuals examined and found that in 2023, the average cost per person was just 166.14 hryvnias. In 2025, the figure rose slightly to 197 hryvnias. But in 2024, it dropped to only 68 hryvnias. To be honest, I seriously doubt it’s possible to conduct proper diagnostic testing and a full medical evaluation for that amount.”

Yakovets stressed the urgent need to reform how MMCs operate within medical institutions overseen by the Ministry of Health.

“In our view, it is crucial to improve the way these commissions function in healthcare facilities affiliated with the Ministry of Health,” she concluded.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news