Roundtable dispute on healthcare funds between insurers and academicians

Representatives of academic circles and insurance companies entered into dispute about the private healthcare funds – whether these should be social security or insurance companies. The dispute was held today at a roundtable, organised by the Higher School of Insurance and Finance. According to Professor Yordan Hristoskov, former head of the National Social Security Institute and professor at HSIF, one of the best solutions is to preserve the National Healthcare Insurance Fund along with the option of additional healthcare insurance in joint-stock companies with one subject of activity. He also proposed the establishment of a specialised system for healthcare protection of uninsured people. Professor Evgenia Delcheva from the University of National and World Economy also supported the existence of private healthcare insurance funds.

According to 2008 estimates, Bulgaria ranks first in the EU in terms of high healthcare costs, calculated as a percentage of GDP. World Health Organisation data shows that the share of public expenditures in the sector is about 56%, compared to over 70% for the EU on average. “This practically means that the poorest citizens in the EU pay the largest fees for healthcare services and the level of public funding is quite insufficient,” said Professor Delcheva. Therefore, private healthcare insurance funds may be an alternative to the informal payments in the system.

If the companies in the sector currently spend about BGN 25-30 mln per year, when they become insurers, they will earmark 10 times less. Representatives of the insurers, however, shared the opposite opinion. According to Assen Hristov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eurohold Bulgaria, "health insurance systems are not a broadly applied approach worldwide because people use insurance packages." Therefore, he suggested the entry of large financial companies with substantial capitals to be enabled under strict regulations on the part of the Financial Supervision Commission. "If we allow the emergence of hundreds of companies with small capitals on the market, we will be back in the gangsters' time  from 1995-1997, when every neighbourhood had its own insurance company or, in other words, every doctor – with a health fund, every nurse – with two," argues Hristov.