Bulgaria's Health Minister Claims Copay Not Determined Yet

Politics » DOMESTIC | September 29, 2010, Wednesday // 10:49
Bulgaria: Bulgaria's Health Minister Claims Copay Not Determined Yet Anna-Maria Borisova, Bulgaria's Health Minister, has claimed that the reforms always affect someone's interests and this was the reason for the demand for her resignation. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Health Minister Anna-Maria Borisova has stated that the exact percentage of the copay has not been determined.

"Who said that the copay will be 20%, it might be 30%. We do not know the percentage yet," she said, as a response to the statement by the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov, who claimed Tuesday that a 20% copay would not be implemented.

Borisova has explained Wednesday in an interview for the Bulgarian private TV channel bTV that the exact amount of the copay is not defined yet and that it depends on the assessment of costs of medical services.

"The health care is a hostage to the Finance Ministry because there is still no assessment of medical services yet. It should have been done last year," she said.

On Monday, it was announced that the Health Ministry's "Concept for better health care 2010 - 2015" is planning changes, which envision that patients should copay for treatment in hospitals.

At present, patients copay to hospitals for the stay, choice of medical team, medicines and dental treatments.

Borisova has explained that the copay would be a voluntary health insurance fund and the discussion is whether it should be implemented or not.

In her words, the mandatory fund is insufficiently financed and this was the reason for the proposal for introduction of the copay.

"With such a voluntary fund, everybody will decide for themselves whether they need to be hospitalized," she said.

The Health Minister also commented on the critics towards her and the demand for her resignation by the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces Party (UDF), which claimed on Tuesday that she lacked knowledge of the country's health care system and is incapable of making leadership decisions.

'Whenever a reform is happening, somebody's interests are affected. This is the reason for demanding someone's resignation, in this case it is my resignation," Borisova said and added she could resign but asked what would happen with the reform if she did.

She expressed her belief that the reform is connected to the political rating of the party, which is introducing it, because all the negatives are directed towards it.

"Nobody has done any reforms in the health care for 20 years. Boyko Borisov, with the awareness that it would bring him negatives, has told me to work on it," the minister said.

On Tuesday, the two major opposition formations in Bulgaria – the Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) agreed to base the cabinet's no-confidence vote on its failure in the health care sector.

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Tags: Anna-Maria Borisova, Boyko Borisov, health care, health care sector, no-confidence vote, UDF, BSP, DPS

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