Long seen as a complete no go zone for investors, Bulgaria appears to be powering ahead with healthcare reforms including the closure of a third of all hospital capacity.

Cutting public hospitals, injecting more money into healthcare and part-privatising healthcare insurance are all in the new government’s programme.
The initial steps have been taken to prune the inefficient secondary sector says Renate Indjova at Tokuda, the large Japanese owned hospital in Sofia. She says probably over 100 of the 400 public hospitals will be converted to other uses. Often built for political reasons in remote regions, many have been almost empty for years. As part of the process, the government has delayed payments and hospitals are still waiting for December expenditure.

Meanwhile the government has just announced an extra BGN 350-400m (€175-200m) for healthcare. This would boost expenditure from 4.2% of GDP towards 6%.

The newish conservative Bulgarian government is taking healthcare reform seriously. Sources say the authorities plan to introduce compulsory additional insurance over and above the limited amount offered by the National Health Insurance Fund. This would create overnight a new insurance market worth hundreds of millions of euros. Sources told Healthcare Europa that they expect the changes to be introduced as planned in January.

But whether all the reforms will go through is still uncertain. One observer said: “Bulgarians are worried by the idea of extra charges. The media reports a lot of resistance.”

A recent article in Focus News charts the course. It shows the new government consulting with hospital directors before announcing the changes and fighting corruption. It quotes finance minister Simeon Dyankov saying: “We have to be sure that the money is spent on medical treatment, not on more expensive medicines or on people who actually do not use the healthcare system. In other words, we have to be sure there are no swindles.”

It is interesting to note that the EU policy of applying a pistol to the head of Bulgaria and withholding EU payments appears to be working. The new Bulgarian is seen as fiscally competent and the Bulgarian Lev has gained ground against the dollar over the last month.
Long seen as a complete no go zone for investors, Bulgaria appears to be powering ahead with healthcare reforms and has just announced an extra BGN 350-400m (€175-200m) for healthcare. This would boost expenditure from 4.2% of GDP towards 6%.