Public to gain access to hospital and health insurance information and statistics

The Chamber of Deputies has passed a bill that will allow the public to access information and statistics from health insurance companies as well as hospitals. Under the legislation individuals will be able to gain information about, for example, the cost of treatment of illnesses as well as the number of operations performed by hospitals and length of patients' stay. Under the law, health insurance companies will be bound to inform patients in cases where doctors have made mistakes - as well as to publish their own statistics. The bill will now come up in the Senate and must be passed there as well as signed by the president before taking effect.