There may not be enough real money to raise doctors' salaries — MP

Instead, MOH employees were provided an immediate increase of 36%.

Although the draft State Budget of Ukraine for 2027 includes raising doctors' base salaries to 30 thousand UAH and to 20 thousand UAH for nurses, this will be three times less than the salary increase for employees of the Ministry of Health, said People’s Deputy and member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health, Medical Care and Medical Insurance, Serhiy Kuzminykh.

He noted that doctors' and nurses' salaries are directly tied to the level of funding for the Medical Guarantees Program, for which 225 billion UAH are planned to be spent in 2027, compared to 191,5 billion UAH in 2026. At the same time, an additional 13 billion UAH will go to the “Affordable Medicines” program, and in total the real increase in funding for medical services is planned at roughly 20 billion UAH, or a rise of 11%.

“And here’s the catch — these 11% will effectively be eaten up by inflation. And even 11% is very optimistic. Just look at fuel prices at gas stations... So hospitals will have virtually no actual additional resources. Which means where to find the money for the promised salary increases is a big question,” Kuzminykh wrote on Facebook.

At the same time, the deputy pointed out that spending on salaries for the Ministry of Health itself was decided to be increased immediately by 36%, even though MOH pay is currently three times higher than a doctor's.

The government has two key tasks: supporting defense capability and supporting business. However, the record 4,8 trillion UAH allocated for security and defense in the draft budget-2027 do not guarantee even inflation-indexed pay for the military. And economic support is supposed to be handled by the “National Cashback” and loans “5–7–9.” ZN.UA economics editor Yuliya Samayeva analyzed in the article “Budget-2027 — a colossus on non-existent money” whether the draft state budget for 2027 meets the real challenges of today.