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Bulgaria’s parliament has suspended a €50 billion health investment strategy until 2030, despite suffering disproportionately high mortality rates and recording the highest negative population growth in the European Union.
Lawmakers from the ruling majority are delaying adoption of the document as non-governmental organizations representing various sectors of the health system demand more funding.
Bulgaria’s previous health strategy expired in 2020, and since then the country has continued to spend on its health system without clear strategic priorities.
criticism
The most serious criticism comes from private hospitals, which have a strong lobby in Congress. They want a higher share of direct investment from the state.
Svirena Dimitrova, head of the Bulgarian Hospital Association, said at a discussion on the strategy on February 8 that “the strategy does not say a single word about private health facilities. Private health facilities are part of the national hospital structure. It accounts for 40% of the total.” .
The Bulgarian Association of Cardiologists said the strategy does not reflect the need to improve the treatment of heart disease, the most common cause of premature death in the country.
“This is a serious problem for Bulgaria,” Vasil Traikov of the Association of Cardiologists commented during the debate. The organization proposes strategies to promote early access to treatments and innovative medical care.
Furthermore, Dr. Nikolai Sharkov, President of the Bulgarian Dental Association, commented that this health strategy only contains a small part of the funding needed for oral health.
Link to drug packaging
Bulgaria’s health strategy also relates to the country’s position under the EU’s new medicines law. One of the main aims of this political document is to reduce the cost of medical services for Bulgarians, but some MPs believe that the drug package could lead to higher costs.
According to Bulgarian law, healthcare is supposed to be free for all citizens who pay health insurance premiums, but the reality is often different. According to national statistics, nearly half of the €9 billion annual health expenditure (out of €100 billion GDP) comes from private payments, with the largest proportion being spent on drugs.
As reported by Euractic, the EU’s poorest countries are concerned that new rules for the pharmaceutical industry will affect their ability to negotiate directly with drug companies on pricing and reimbursement decisions, making them the biggest risk to Bulgaria. is an increase in drug prices.
Although the Bulgarian government does not yet have a final opinion on the new EU law, the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance’s opinion on medicine packaging mentions the need for measures to guarantee low-cost medicines for countries with low GDP. There is. , “Prices are not equal in all countries.”
Sofia said the European Commission’s proposed changes to the field of intellectual property law risk limiting incentives for innovative producers and causing havoc in national decision-making processes. Suggests.
Urgent and effective strategy needed
Deputy Minister of Health Ilko Getov, who is also responsible for pharmaceutical packaging, reminded stakeholders that Bulgaria has not had an effective strategy for determining policies in this area for the last three years, and said that the parties in the dispute He called on them to move forward quickly.
Bulgaria has also been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with the virus-related death rate the second highest in the world after Peru. Approximately 40,000 Bulgarians have died from the coronavirus, representing about 0.6% of the country’s population.
“The National Health Strategy is the only political document that sets out the implementation of the recovery and resilience plan and requires parliamentary approval,” the deputy minister said. The remaining strategic documents were approved by the Council of Ministers.
Deputy Alexander Simidochiev of the PP-DB, a member of the ruling majority, also called on all parties to find a way to move forward quickly and urgently adopt a strategic document.
During the January 2023 vote, lawmakers asked the Ministry of Health to completely rewrite the document. A parliamentary working group is now expected to proceed with compiling the necessary strategy.
[By Krassen Nikolov, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab]
Read more at Euractiv
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