site.btaParliament Adopts Conclusively 2017 Healthcare Budget

Parliament Adopts Conclusively 2017 Healthcare Budget

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - Parliament on Wednesday adopted conclusively the 2017 National Health Insurance Budget (NHIF). The budget sets forth a balance between revenues and expenditures just as in 2016.

In 2017, the health insurance contribution will remain at 8 per cent and will be split between employers and employees at a 60:40 ratio.

NHIF's revenues and transfers are set at 3,452,816,000 leva. The estimated number of health insured persons is around 6.2 million.

NHIF's expenditures and transfers are set at 3,452,816,00 leva, of which 3,032,000,500 leva will go towards payments covered by heatlh insurance contributions.

The allocation for primary outpatient care is 200 million leva (20 million more from 2016); for specialized outpatient care - 211.4 million leva (9.9 million more); for dental care - 147 million leva (24 million leva more); for diagnostic activities - 77.5 million (7.1 million leva more).

NHIF has set aside 798.6 million leva (47.7 million more from 2016) for medicines, medical supplies and diet foods for outpatient care and cancer medicines for hospital care.

Some 1,457,528,900 leva have been budgeted for hospital care, or 114.2 million leva more from 2016. Nearly 341,400,000 leva (24.8 million leva more) have been set aside for contingency expenditures.

MPs decided that NHIF's Supervisory Board will allocate the contingency reserve after the signing of national framework agreements for 2017 with the branch medical and dental associations. The first allocation will be made no earlier than March 31 2017. MPs scrapped a restriction that 90 per cent of NHIF"s contingency reserve should go towards medicines and hospital care.