Bulgaria Govt Meets Doctors' Demands by Upping Health Insurance

Tsvetan Raychinov, head of the Bulgarian Doctors' Union, said he would resign if the government did not fulfill its promises. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Doctors’ Union has called off its planned strike after the government promised Monday to meet its demands.

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, met Monday with Tsvetan Raychinov, Chair of the Doctors’ Union. Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov, and Minister of Health, Bozhidar Nanev, were also present at the meeting.

The doctors from around the country have threatened strikes over delayed payments for their services from the National Health Insurance Fund. A number of the general practitioners have not been paid by the Fund since January for services that they provided to insured patients. GPs in several cities in Western Bulgaria went on strike on Monday.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has promised the doctors that additional BGN 350 M from the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund will be unblocked in order to make the money available for the delayed payments.

At the same time, however, Borisov announced that the health insurance payments in Bulgaria will be raised by 2% in order to make up for the BGN 350 M in question. The government is taking this measure in order to avoid increasing the budget deficit, Borisov said.

He pointed that Bulgaria had the lowest employee health insurance payments in the EU – currently 8%. After the expected 2% increase, it is going to reach 10%.

Bulgaria’s Health Ministry has promised to pay all delayed dues to doctors and hospitals by Wednesday.

The head of the Bulgarian Doctors’ Union, Tsvetan Raychinov, has welcomed the agreement with the Borisov government. He pointed out that the National Health Insurance Fund collected less money in 2009 than planned which led to a shortage. He also said he would resign if the government deal he made did not work out.

Prime Minister Borisov has promised the GPs that they will be receiving their money from the Fund on time from now on. However, the Association of General Practitioners has stated that it was not going to stop its protests immediately because it still did not trust the Health Insurance Fund.

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