The financial macro-framework for the healthcare sector for 2002 is still not clear. That emerged after the start of the negotiations on the national framework agreement for 2002 on September 24. The director of the National Health Insurance Fund /NHIF/, Dr Boyko Penkov, explained that at this stage no concrete financing was discussed. The amount of the funding will depend on a number of factors, such as the IMF, the budget, the forecasts for a global recession, etc. The negotiations which started are the fourth since the start of the health reform in pre-hospital aid two years ago. The talks with the different branch organisations are expected to finish in late November.