„In the budget provided for the NHIF, this year 28% is allocated to medicinal products, 12% is for medicines in hospitals. Compared to last year’s budget, we have a 16% increase, but according to the report, it is about 15.2%. For outpatient care, the increase is just over 20%.“
This was stated by Former manager of the Health Fund, Prof. Petko Salchev. He pointed out:
„It is obvious that this law was written outside the NHIF. The budget was prepared by people who do not understand health care, only bills. The main co-payments by patients are in medicines. It may be that with a careful policy, medicines can be co-pays according to the types of diseases. There is not a single policy set in this direction in this budget.“
The former manager of the NHIF did not hide that he was surprised by this fact, as a report was presented to the Minister of Finance in this regard last year.
„You can’t insist that the NHIF does tenders with general practitioners (GPs). Then the National Framework Contract should be scrapped altogether. Until the end of the year, it is not certain whether it will not be necessary to release a reserve,“, Prof. Petko Salchev commented. Referring to the insistence of general practitioners should not have contact with their patients in the evening, the former NHIF manager stated:
„If GPs don’t perform on-call duties, they won’t get the extra money they are given for this activity.“
