Bulgarian Medical Association: Nationalisation of people’s health insurance contributions is underway

“The Ministry of Health prepares changes which could lead to nationalisation of people's health insrance contributions after the nationalisation of the National Health Insurance Fund' reserves,” warned yesterday Dr. Tsvetan Raichinov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Association for Klassa.

"The prepared changes are being introduced by the Ministry of Health alone and are aimed at changing the financing model of the medical care in hospitals. The Minister tries to introduce some global budgets, or a funding on a yearly or monthly basis. The idea is still unclear, but the changes try to avoid the clinical pathways principle. These budgets will be determined by the new Centre for Health Information, coordinated with the Minister, and then submitted to the NHIF for implementation," he explained. According to Raichinov, this will greatly stimulate corruption and the emigration of medical staff.

"These people do not seem to understand what is the essence of the insurance model and do not realise that the NHIF is not a state but a national public institution, involving certain public authorities, such as trade unions, employers and patient organizations," said Dr. Tsvetan Raichinov. According to him, the Ministry aims at reducing the regulation powers to two single persons - the Minister of Health and the Director of the Centre for Health Information.

According to the Chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Association, the transfer of activities from the Ministry to the NHIF, without changing or even reducing the respective budgets, is another change which is being considered.

Last Thursday, the BMA invited representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and from the NHIF at a meeting, because of the unclear principles of the health care financing in 2012. The meeting, however, was ignored by the mentioned administrations. High level managers from all the three institutions met alone in the Ministry of Finance. "This means that they are preparing changes in the financing model of the system out of the sight of the public. I have every reason to believe that something is being prepared in secret. Something that no one would accept, "said the Chairman of the BMA.

Прочети цялата новина

Свързани новини: