International Conference “Risk in Contemporary Economy” ISSN-L 2067-0532 ISSN online 2344-5386 XIX th Edition, 2018, Galati, Romania, “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, Romania – Faculty of Economics and Business Administration 56 DOI 10.26397/rce206705326 Life quality’s healthcare component in Romania: A new regional approach Romeo Victor IONESCU ionescu_v_romeo@yahoo.com Iulian Adrian ȘORCARU ulian.sorcaru@ugal.ro Ionica SOARE soareionica@gmail.com Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania Abstract The quality of the healthcare system in Romania was and still is an important subject for many studies from different scientific research domains. The paper deals with the analysis of the healthcare system in Romania in the context of life quality’s improvement. The research is based on significant indicators: life expectancy, number of physicians, medical staff, hospital beds, aging population and mortality rates. For the beginning, a comparative analysis between EU average values and Romania leads to interesting conclusions. A distinct part of the paper is focused on healthcare system’s situation in Romania. The analysis is achieved on three levels: national, regional and local and follows four steps: a comparative analysis, a dispersion analysis in order to point out the regional disparities between the health care systems, a cluster analysis and forecasting procedures on medium term. The main conclusion of the paper is that the healthcare system in Romania is far from being well developed and presents great disparities between counties, represented by their capital cities and NUTS2 regions. In order to manage this situation, the regional cluster approach is the best solution. The whole analysis in the paper is based on the latest official statistic data and pertinent diagrams. Keywords: quality of life, healthcare system, county capital cities, regional disparities, healthcare regional clusters 1. Introduction In the research of life quality, health is approached from two distinct perspectives: as a dimension, as a field of life quality and life quality from health perspective [1]. The study approaches the health care system from the first perspective, of health as a dimension of life quality. Life quality is a multidimensional concept, referring to global welfare of people in a society [2], health being one of the areas of life quality. The factors that maintain/deteriorate the health of the population have been analyzed in numerous studies, the authors achieving a series of models (Lalonde, Plurifactorial) dealing with health determinants. Therefore, lifestyle influences health through diet, consumption of fat, fibers, vitamins, alcoholism, tobacco or drug use, preventing or accelerating the onset of illness and their aggravation. Socio-economic factors deal with the correlation between the population incomes and its health. Poor income and poor purchasing power have the effect of getting people into poverty, whose access to primary resources (food, housing, medicines, medical treatments) is becoming increasingly limited. 2. Problem Statement The economic development’s impact on the health and healthcare represents a constant theme of analysis in the EU. An interesting approach puts together 39 studies which lead to a single conclusion: the recent economic crisis supported the deterioration of the public health. Moreover, the recovery measures and the reform of the health system have been focusing mainly on short-term effects by reducing expenditure [7].