site.btaSupervisory Board of National Health Insurance Fund Protests Next Year's Budget for Health Care

Supervisory Board of National Health Insurance Fund Protests Next Year's Budget for Health Care

Sofia, October 27 (BTA) - The Supervisory Board of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is opposed to the draft budget for health care in 2016 because it does not include outlays to cover the deficit for this year, Stanimir Hassurdjiev of the Supervisory Board told the press Tuesday.

The deficit is some 130 million leva. The budget proposed by the Finance Ministry for 2016 is 3,204 billion leva.

Hassurdjiev warned that if it carried over to next year, the system will be unable to function normally and no resources will be available to implement legislative changes that ushered in the reform in health care.

He explained that based on proposals by the lay members of the NHIF SUpervisor Board, it decided that the budget should be 3,335 billion leva.

"We have to tell the deputies and the government what resources the [health care] system needs," he commented.

Deputy Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev, who chairs the NHIF SUpervisory Board, as well as National Revenue Agency chief Boyko Atanassov have voted against the Finance Ministry's draft budget for health, according to Hassurdjiev.

He suggested that the deficit in the health care budget could be covered through transfers from the central government budget.