What is Fidesz planning?
publication date: Feb 19, 2010
Expect radical reforms in Hungary if Fidesz, as expected, wins the April 2010 election.
No country has disappointed the private sector more than Hungary, so what is Fidesz, the right wing government which looks certain to be elected this summer plan to change after eight years of socialism?
Fidesz has a mixed record. It has long claimed publicly that it won’t let the private sector in to healthcare, whilst saying something entirely different behind closed doors. Now insiders say that it will completely reform the corrupt Hungarian system, sacking many hospital directors and cracking down hard on bribery.
The American Chamber of Commerce held a series of five seminars where Fidesz expert on healthcare Dr Istvan Mikola met a small group to discuss future plans. Balazs Stumpf-Biro, head of the European Medical Travel Alliance EEIG, says that Dr Mikola, the former healthcare minister in 2000-2001 and the man many say might be the new healthcare minister, is open to new ideas.
At the last meeting they discussed a system whereby statutory insurers would have contract with, not with the hospitals but the surgeons who operated in them. “Insurers would compete for the fast effective doctors and the hospitals would then have to compete for these doctors,” says Stumpf-Biro.
He does not expect a fall in healthcare spending after the election. “Billions of forints have been removed from the healthcare budget over the last few years, everyone knows that this can’t continue,” he says. “But, they will guarantee the amount to provide the seemless functioning of the system, but will be extremely careful about investing more before the system is reformed, in order to avoid further wastage.”
Such plans will inevitably be greeted with scepticism. Hungary has been a rotten place for private healthcare providers.
“Well, we won’t be investing again in Hungarian healthcare in a hurry” says a source of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, apropos of its disastrous investment in Hospinvest, the hospital operator which went bust after the state failed to deliver on €4m of funding. That comment would be echoed by healthcare insurers who saw ambitious plans to set up a Dutch style system based on private insurance torn up after 18 months of debate. Despite its near certainty to winning, Fidesz will have to convince a lot of sceptics (including most Hungarians) that it is not corrupt and can be effective.
No country has disappointed the private sector more than Hungary, so what is Fidesz, the right wing government which looks certain to be elected this summer plan to change after eight years of socialism?
Fidesz has a mixed record. It has long claimed publicly that it won’t let the private sector in to healthcare, whilst saying something entirely different behind closed doors. Now insiders say that it will completely reform the corrupt Hungarian system, sacking many hospital directors and cracking down hard on bribery.
The American Chamber of Commerce held a series of five seminars where Fidesz expert on healthcare Dr Istvan Mikola met a small group to discuss future plans. Balazs Stumpf-Biro, head of the European Medical Travel Alliance EEIG, says that Dr Mikola, the former healthcare minister in 2000-2001 and the man many say might be the new healthcare minister, is open to new ideas.
At the last meeting they discussed a system whereby statutory insurers would have contract with, not with the hospitals but the surgeons who operated in them. “Insurers would compete for the fast effective doctors and the hospitals would then have to compete for these doctors,” says Stumpf-Biro.
He does not expect a fall in healthcare spending after the election. “Billions of forints have been removed from the healthcare budget over the last few years, everyone knows that this can’t continue,” he says. “But, they will guarantee the amount to provide the seemless functioning of the system, but will be extremely careful about investing more before the system is reformed, in order to avoid further wastage.”
Such plans will inevitably be greeted with scepticism. Hungary has been a rotten place for private healthcare providers.
“Well, we won’t be investing again in Hungarian healthcare in a hurry” says a source of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, apropos of its disastrous investment in Hospinvest, the hospital operator which went bust after the state failed to deliver on €4m of funding. That comment would be echoed by healthcare insurers who saw ambitious plans to set up a Dutch style system based on private insurance torn up after 18 months of debate. Despite its near certainty to winning, Fidesz will have to convince a lot of sceptics (including most Hungarians) that it is not corrupt and can be effective.