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A million Bulgarians fail to pay healthcare contributions, survey says

Sat, May 16 2009 11:00 CET

byDnevnik.bg

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A million Bulgarians fail to pay healthcare contributions, survey says

Photo: Julia Lazarova

Bulgaria's healthcare system has lost about three billion leva from unpaid health care contributions over the past five years, Lyubomir Kirov, chairman of the national general practitioners’ association, told a roundtable organised by Open Society Institute (OSI).

More than a million Bulgarians made no healthcare contributions at all. Of this number a third were aged below 30 and many had a poor level of education. Many of the non-payers were also from the Roma community, revealed OSI statistics.

The main factors that discourage Bulgarians from paying healthcare contributions are unemployment and unregulated additional payments at hospitals.

Healthcare accounts for 7.7 per cent of Bulgaria’s gross domestic product (GDP). But only 60 per cent of the total comes from public money, with the rest coming directly from individuals, said Mimi Vitkova, chairwoman of the association of licensed voluntary health insurance companies.

Household spending on healthcare and medication has ballooned by 402 per cent from 1999 to 2008 while public money has increased by just 189 per cent, the study estimates.

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Comments

AnonymousPxgagwhcFri, Jun 26 2009 07:46 CET

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained

Anonymous Bulgaria66 Tue, May 26 2009 23:38 CET
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its not that they don´t pay .. they just don´t pay the goverment they pay the doctors direct.. thats what i did.. Im not a bulgarian. im from another EU state.. I paid for weeks of it cash to the doctors direct into hands and pockets.

Anonymous Raptor Sat, May 16 2009 17:02 CET
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But what is the point to pay...when you get to the hospital, you are "forced" to pay bribes and give gifts ".


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