site.btaParliament Debates First No-Confidence Motion against Government over Health Care Policy

Parliament Debates First No-Confidence Motion against Government over Health Care Policy

Sofia, February 18 (BTA) - Parliament is debating Wednesday the  first motion for a vote of no-confidence against this government  of Boyko Borissov over its policy in the health care sector.  The motion was initiated by 69 MPs of the Bulgarian Socialist  Party (BSP) - Left Bulgaria, the Movement for Rights and  Freedoms (MRF) and two independents.

The debates are held in the presence of government ministers but the Prime Minister is not there.

The majority voted down a motion to have the debates broadcast live by the Bulgarian National Television and the National Radio.
   
The vote will be taken at 9:00 hrs on February 19.

The motives

In their motives to the motion, the Socialists, MRF and the two  independents wrote that in the past year the government and the  Health Minister have undertaken unprincipled and meaningless  decisions showing a lack of a systematic approach, and this has  brought about a chaos in the health sector and obstructed  people's access to health care. As examples of such steps they  mention revisions in the  Health Insurance Act and the Medical  Treatment Establishments Act, which are being challenged before  the Constitutional Court.

"Financial caps and inadequate funding of the health care system  have brought about an unprecedented situation in which medical  establishments are unable to provide services. The health care  system is destabilized. The ambition of the government and the Health Minister in particular is to see a zero deficit  in the 2015 health care budget," the reasoning goes.

The authors argue that what they call "the scandal with the  unlawful import of vaccines lacking approval for sale in the EU"  has had a particularly negative response among Bulgarian people  and the Minister should have taken responsibility for this  immediately.

They refer to recent allegations that vaccines for infants were  imported from Turkey without the requisite clearance but the  Health Minister argued that the deal was in keeping with the law  and helped prevent a shortage of vaccines.

"The arrogant behaviour of the Health Minister, his populism and  incompetence are possible due to the support of the whole  ruling majority, the government and especially the Prime  Minister," said Socialist MP Zhelyo Boychev as he read out the  motives in the debating chamber.

Democrats for Strong Bulgaria

Addressing the legislature, Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB)  leader Radan Kanev said that his party cannot be expected to  back the motion.

Moskov was a deputy leader of DSB before Kanev pulled out his  support for the Borissov government and went into opposition,  and he had to chose whether or not to go along. He chose to  remain Health Minister and give up the deputy leader's office at  DSB.
 
"If you want to attack Right-wing ministers, you have to talk to  the people who have declared themselves as balancing factors in  this Parliament: our colleagues from GERB," Kanev said. Turning  to the opposition, he said: "You managed to get rid of [former  Justice Minister] Hristo Ivanov and if you want to get rid of  Peter Moskov, you need GERB to do it with, not us."

Kanev said that the no-confidence motion crowned three-week  efforts to sweep under the carpet the catastrophe with the  failed judicial reform.

MRF

Touncher Kurdjaliev (MRF) said that the Health Minister's stable  positions are not due to his competence or potential to carry  through reforms but due to the fact that he enjoys the  protection of Boyko Borissov. As soon as the Prime Minister  withdraws his protection, he will go, Kurdjaliev observed.
 
There is an imitation of reforms in the healthcare sector, MRF  MP Hasan Ademov said.    The Minister has lead the health system to  chaos with unforeseen consequences. Bulgarian doctors are  forced to act as sole traders and hospitals' obligations amount  to 500 million leva, Ademov continued. In his opinion, the  National Health Map will cause excessive concentration of power  in the administration.

In his view, the complex health services are not a matter of  hospital beds, buildings and territories but a matter of  organization. People who do not suffer from a socially  significant disease, lose motivation to pay health insurance,  said Ademov. "The health insurance system is certain to collapse  without confidence. What we are proposed is not a health reform  but pursuit of financial goals," he noted.

The alternative offered by MRF is demonopolization of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF),  providing patients with broad right of free choice, competition,  market relations, alternative sources of financing and  efficient use of the available resource. 

BSP-Left Bulgaria

BSP leader Mihail Mikov said DSB are "accomplices causing this  stalemate in healthcare". "Whatever you say to the people, they  would have difficulties to recognize you as opposition given  that you support this Government," said Mikov.    

Since 1999 the health has been increasingly turning into a commodity and today's policy of the Government strengthens this tendency, he observed. In an effort to safeguard the NHIF budget, the incumbents burden the Bulgarian nationals with additional payments. According to Mikov, the free market will determine the health and the life of the Bulgarian citizens.

Less and less Bulgarians see any reason in paying their health insurance contributions.

The parties, which support the Government today just do not want elections no matter how the policies are affecting the Bulgarian nationals, Mikov concluded adding that this is instrumental for the support for the majority.

GERB

Semir Abu Melih (GERB) urged DSB to speak up for their party fellow Peter Moskov. "This no-confidence vote is a result of your actions - your going into 'opposition'. Your minister remained a 'political orphan' and we have gathered here to defend him," Melih said further. He said further that this is not the policy of GERB, which only has a supporting role.

He appealed to DSB not to use the Bulgarian healthcare in their election campaign. "The discussions should have been more technical, so that certain truths would have been said to allow the health reform to go into the right direction," he added.

Melih, however, voiced the opinion that Moskov has the energy and the will to carry out reforms. He advised the Health Minister to set up a council with representatives of the opposition.

"We are unanimous that the healthcare system does not guarantee health and security in its present state. We are unanimous that changes must be implemented," said MP Daniela Daritkova. In her opinion, an improved mechanism of financing in-patient care should be found, for example, diagnostically-related groups because the imbalances between the health establishments are a fact that cannot be denied.

ABV

ABV is not going to support the no-confidence motion, said Dr Georgi Kyuchoukov. "The problems in our health care started with the inception of this system in 1999  when a lot of mistakes were made. This system made merchants out of the doctors," this MP said.

He argued that hospitals should stop to be treated only based on what equipment and specialists they have. "They need to be assessed for which of them provides true medical help to people."

Bulgarian Democratic Centre

Despite the huge objections to the policy of the Health Ministry, the Bulgarian Democratic Centre (BDC) will abstain during the vote on the no-confidence motion, said co-chair Krassimira Kovachka. "Important issues in health care were left out of  the motives for the no-confidence motion: that municipal health services are experiencing difficulties, that the funding is inadequate and so is the equipment, that there is a shortage of medical personnel," she said. She added that medical professionals are underpaid, and this demotivates them and paves the way to corruption.

The medicinal policy also needs reform, Kovachka said.       

Patriotic Front  

Patriotic Front co-leader Valeri Simeonov said that the policy pursued by Peter Moskov has been one of the most successful in this year's of government of Boyko Borissov's team.

Fellow party member Dimiter Bayraktarov said that only six months after the revisions to the health insurance legislation were voted by Parliament, 200,000  Bulgarians have restored their health insurance rights and the Health Insurance Fund broke even for the first time in years.

Ataka

The nationalist Ataka party said that they will vote against the government and its Health Minister, and that they are convinced that in many other sectors the government - and more specifically the Reformist Bloc - has been a failure, said MP Magdalena Tasheva. "While municipal hospitals are being shut down, private hospitals mushroom to syphon the National Health Insurance Fund through false diagnosis. Nothing was done against corruption among medics," she said.

She said that the government also deserved a vote of no-confidence for its policy in the security sector.

Independent MPs Lyutvi Mestan, Georgi Kadiev and Velizar Enchev said they will support the no confidence motion.

Mestan argued that after DSB's walkout, the government lost its moral political legitimacy and that he and the MPs who left the MRF together with him will support the no confidence motion.

Kadiev said that most of RB's election promises in the area of healthcare have not materialized yet. The voter thinks that the politicians are arrogant and the absence of the Prime Minister at the debate demonstrates this, Kadiev said.

Enchev repeatedly urged that the Prime Minister should come in Parliament for the no confidence motion debate and said that the latter tramples on parliamentarianism.

Responding to the issues that were raised, Moskov said that the reasoning of the motion of no confidence has several lies: that there exists a regulatory chaos; that access to healthcare is limited; that there is a high level of personal costs for healthcare of members of the public; that the Health Insurance Act compromises the health insurance model; that financial restrictions were imposed in 2015 rendering medical care establishments unable to provide medical aid; that hospital debts increase. Doctors leaving this country is yet another untruth, Moskov said.