site.btaParliament Passes 2021 National Health Insurance Fund Budget

November 224 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Parliament Tuesday passed conclusively the 2021 National Health Insurance Fund Budget Act.

Under the Act, the revenues and transfers to the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) next year will total 5,341,312,900 leva. The rate of the compulsory health insurance contribution for 2021 will be unchanged at 8 per cent.

The monthly salaries of medical staff will be supplemented for the duration of the epidemic emergency by 600 leva for doctors, 360 leva for nurses and 120 leva for orderlies. Physicians who draw a gross monthly salary exceeding 5,000 leva will not be eligible for the extra pay.

The legislature empowered the Council of Ministers to approve additional transfers on the 2021 NHIF budget for COVID-19-related activities according to the procedure established by the State Budget Act.

Next year, the Health Ministry will transfer 83,400,000 leva to the NHIF, including 6,576,000 leva for vaccines and vaccination and 38,000,000 for medical devices, assistive devices, adaptations and facilities for people with disabilities.

The NHIF was authorized to spend 5,186,300,500 leva on current expenditures, 56,051,100 leva on staff costs, 20,640,000 leva on maintenance of administrative activities, 197,386,000 leva in health-insurance payments on dental care, 100,901,000 leva in health-insurance payments on medical diagnostics, and 1,332,000,000 leva in health-insurance payments on medicinal products, medical devices and dietary foods for special medical purposes for treatment at home, for medicinal products for cancer treatment and medicinal products for life-threatening haemorrhages and emergency interventions.

The powerholders argued that the budget is balanced while the Left criticized it as "patchy". Georgi Mihailov MP of BSP for Bulgaria resented the fact that laboratory staff have been left out. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms voted against the bill and only supported the incentives for medical staff. RI/LG

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