site.btaSocialist Leader Believes Change in Healthcare Model Cannot Be Completed within Single Government's Term

122 ECONOMY - HEALTHCARE - SOCIALISTS - MEETING

Socialist Leader Believes
Change in Healthcare Model Cannot Be Completed
within Single Government's Term


Sofia, October 10 (BTA) - Bulgarian Socialist Party Chairperson Kornelia Ninova met with the leadership of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) on Wednesday, the party said in a press release. "There are three matters which require national concord: healthcare, education and the population collapse," Ninova said after the meeting. "The change in the healthcare model cannot be completed within a single government's mandate, it requires supra-mandate thinking."

According to her, "mandate thinking" has wrecked the healthcare sector. "The situation in the sector is extremely bad and neither of the two models proposed by GERB will work," she argued. She noted that the NAGP has proposals about the Socialists' Vision for Bulgaria in the part of healthcare and therefore more such meetings will be held.

One of the two models proposed by the incumbents implies complete demonopolization of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), meaning that insurance companies will compete freely with it. The other model is a three-pillar system involving the NHIF as the primary pillar, a second pillar of supplementary compulsory insurance and a third pillar of supplementary voluntary insurance.

NAGP President Lyubomir Kirov thanked for the meeting and expressed readiness for talks with anyone willing to hear an open and constructive opinion. Speaking after the meeting, Kirov said: "We share the view that there must be continuity, regardless of who is in power. We have spared no criticism, and I hope this is healthy and useful."

He said his organization disapproves of both models proposed by the Health Ministry. "They are about raising money. There is nothing in them about changing the system," he said. "Even now, they are failing to collect the compulsory health insurance contributions, but they want a second compulsory insurance." LI/VE
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