Hungarian Health Insurance Fund’s deficit lower than expected in 2009

2010-02-23

The deficit of Hungary’s National Health Insurance Fund (OEP) reached the amount of nearly HUF 150bn (€551.4m) in 2009 and thus was lower than previously forecast by the government. The vast majority of the deficit, HUF 138bn (€507.3m), was caused by the fact that in 2009 less funds than expected were received from health insurance premiums and medical services premiums. The OEP’s budget was also negatively impacted by the exceeding of expenses on medical and preventive funding amounting to HUF 14bn (€51.5m) last year. Also the fact that the government had frozen the amount of HUF 13bn (€47.8m) in the budget at the beginning of last year influenced the situation in a negative way.

On the other hand, the deficit was partly compensated by the fact that drug manufacturers paid HUF 8bn (€29.4) more to the health insurance budget then previously estimated.
However, in December, the OEP’s budget regained its balance, thanks in part to re-introducing the restrictions on the number of procedures performed by the hospitals, which were forced to hold in their performance and overall spent HUF 54bn (€198.5) from the total HUF 60bn (€220.6m) available. The other positive factor to be mentioned is the fact that the hospitals received an additional HUF 4.5bn (€16.5m) released from the amount previously frozen by the government.