site.btaActual Increase of National Health Insurance Fund Budget No More than 100 Million Leva - Representatives of Private Hospitals

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - The actual increase of the 2018 budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is no more than 100 million leva, and not 400 million leva as it is claimed, Dr Tsvetan Dimanov, a member of the National Private Hospitals Association, said Tuesday, speaking at a BTA-hosted news conference. Dimanov said that the NHIF owes nearly 300 million leva to foreign health funds and the increase of its budget will go towards payment of this amount.

The members of the Association once again unanimously insisted for the State to promptly pay up the health insurance of the groups of people it insures. The Association has calculated that the annual amount of health insurance paid by the State is no less than 1,600 million leva.

Chairman of the Association Nikolai Baltadjiev argued that the increased budget funds for 2018 should be spent on new policies, for example, shortening of the patients' stay in hospital, pre-natal diagnostics, etc.

Dr Stoicho Katsarov of the Centre for the Protection of Rights in Healthcare said that the entire philosophy of NHIF's budget is "wrong" and missing in actual calculations about the costs of services.