Caretaker Prime Minister Raises Concerns over Out-of-Pocket Payments for Healthcare and Medicine Price Disparities

Caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov has spoken out against what he described as the “trade in health”. At the start of today’s cabinet meeting, April 16, he once again raised the issue of abuses in the healthcare system and the large differences in prices for the same medicine.

Seven state hospitals are being investigated over cases in which identical medicines were purchased at price differences of up to 16 times.

Gyurov recalled a case in which one hospital bought a medicine for BGN 24,000, while another paid BGN 125,000 for the same product.

Catretaker Health Minister Mihail Okoliyiski said the ministry is working on amendments to two regulations aimed at ending this practice.

Andrey Gyurov, caretaker Prime Minister: “At the same time, Bulgarian patients pay the highest out-of-pocket healthcare costs in the European Union. And this is not a coincidence; this is a system that allows profit to be made from the pain and health of Bulgarian citizens. In this case the problem is not only economic, not only financial, not even only political – it is a moral problem. And this is a red line that Bulgarian society has said should no longer be crossed.”

Caretaker Health Minister Mihail Okoliyiski: “The moment has come to reconfirm all the prices at which these medicines have been purchased. In addition to these two regulations, within today and tomorrow, all medicine names, the prices at which they were purchased, and the healthcare facilities where they were purchased will be published on the website of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund, so that there is full transparency in these processes.”