site.btaState Withdraws from Funding of Healthcare System - Trade Union

State Withdraws from Funding of Healthcare System - Trade Union

Sofia, April 11 (BTA) - There is a lasting tendency of the government's withdrawing from the financing of the healthcare system, it emerged at a discussion about the healthcare reform on Monday, organized by the Confederation of the Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITIB). The state pays three times less on average for the persons insured thereby, while things should be the other way round because retired people are the main users of healthcare services, CITUB's Strashimir Genev said. Genev said that a working person pays more than 800 leva per year for health insurance while the state pays slightly under 200 leva for a retired person.

Genev provided Eurostat data of May 2015 which shows that Bulgaria is on the penultimate place before Romania in terms of per capita healthcare expenditure. Bulgaria tops the ranking of private spending on health with 45 per cent, an is followed by Cyprus, Portugal and Greece. The GDP per capita spending for healthcare dropped by 0.5 per cent for eight years.

Ivan Kokalov, who chairs the Federation of Trade Unions in Healthcare in CITUB, urged for a common government policy in respect of incomes in healthcare. Kokalov said the trade union has opened a discussion with the Health Ministry on salaries in the sector, with the aim of at least reaching the pay levels in Central Europe.

Genev spoke about big differences in the pay of doctors depending on who owns the medical establishment. He said that unified rules for how the pay is determined are missing, as is a relation between performance and pay.